IEBC flags Sh22.9bn poll cash gap

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has said it has a budget gap of Sh22.9 billion, months to the general election.

Commission chairman Erastus Ethekon said yesterday they had submitted a budget of Sh63 billion for the 2027 election, but only Sh41 billion was availed, leaving them with a huge shortfall.

“Following consultations with the National Treasury, the commission was allocated Sh41 billion, leaving a funding shortfall of Sh22.9 billion. While the commission recognises the broader fiscal constraints facing the government, this gap significantly limits preparations at a critical stage and may affect compliance with constitutional timelines and standard,” Ethekon told MPs.

He said in 2025-26 financial year, the commission required Sh4.7 billion for preparations, a figure he noted was fully allocated.

In the following financial years, the allocations failed to match the commission’s requirements, Ethekon said.

For instance, in the 2026-27 financial year, IEBC needed Sh34.9 billion for preparations and only Sh20.7 billion was allocated, leaving Sh14.2 billion gap.

In 2027-28, IEBC requires Sh24.2 billion but only Sh15.5 billion has been allocated, leaving the commission with Sh8.6 billion budget deficit.

Ethekon was accompanied by fellow commissioners and the agency’s secretariat headed by CEO Hussein Marjan.

He cautioned that going into an election with such a huge budget gap will affect a number of planned activities.

“In terms of budgetary support, we have engaged in all the financial processes, we have meetings with yourselves when we took office, we have engaged with the National Treasury and we are saying, let us look at elections as an investment that is necessary for the economic, political social progress of this republic,” the IEBC boss said.

“Elections must be funded adequately for the commission to do a good job, for the commission to deliver a peaceful, credible free and fair elections in all levels.”

In trying to justify the Sh63 billion budget, Ethekon said the figure was arrived at after comprehensive technical and operational assessment of the 2027 polls projects.

He said areas fuelling the budget include projected voter population growth, expansion and maintenance of electoral infrastructure, security needs, and statutory and constitution inclusion obligations.

“We also considered lessons drawn from previous electoral cycles and post-election evaluation as well as relevant comparative and best practice benchmarks,” Ethekon said.

There has been concerns about the cost of elections in the country, with many stakeholders claiming the budget is always exaggerated.

The commission also announced plans to start mass voter registration as it aims to expand its register ahead of next year’s polls.

The exercise to begin on March 29 is expected to net five million new voters.

The IEBC also declared it will not conduct a review of electoral boundaries before next year's election and instead focus on preparatory activities.

The decision came amid urgent and specific calls from Parliament for a review before the elections, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis ahead of the polls.

The electoral agency said no substantive changes to constituency or ward boundaries will occur before the nation votes in August 2027.

It said while it will embark on preparatory activities, in what it termed a phased approach, the delimitation would only be done after the election.

“Even if we were to deliver by July, we barely have three months to deliver the review. We are planning on a scenario where we continue with the preparatory activities while focusing on the general elections,” IEBC chairperson Erastus Ethekon said.

“We will, after the elections, resume the review and complete it within a year or two.” 

The stance puts the IEBC on a collision course with the National Assembly, whose Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee recently demanded immediate action.

The committee, chaired by Suba North MP Caroli Omondi, had issued a stern warning, calling the review critical and stating that failure to complete it would affect the integrity of the 2027 election.

The MPs had explicitly directed the IEBC to report back on steps taken to "initiate the boundary delimitation process" ahead of the polls.

For lawmakers, the 12 months set for completing the exercise have not been exceeded.

Omondi implied that a review could still be concluded for the 2027 polls, even if the new boundaries took effect afterwards.

Article 89 of the Constitution requires IEBC to review boundaries at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years.

The last review was completed in 2012, the eight-year window lapsed in 2020, and a hard deadline of March 6, 2024 – a date that passed without action.

The paralysis was worsened because IEBC lacked the required quorum of commissioners, crippling its decision-making.

The commission secretariat had turned to the Supreme Court, but were turned down because it had no authority to make such an application.

More critically, the Supreme Court also concluded that delays under Article 89 can only be addressed through parliamentary initiatives.

The judges held that the timelines, under Article 89(2) and (3) of the Constitution, were binding and could not be disregarded.

The court held only Parliament could establish mechanisms for extending timelines in exceptional circumstances.

A resolution passed by a majority of all members of the National Assembly and a majority of the county delegations in the Senate is required.

But IEBC says Parliament's demand is logistically and legally impossible, citing a series of "insurmountable" constraints.

It holds the constitutional requirement for completion 12 months prior was impossible with the August 10, 2026, as the deadline for the 2027 election.

The commission said that a full delimitation, as per its own operations plan, requires a minimum of two years.

With less than seven months to the cutoff and a mandated four-month dispute resolution period, the commission asserts it has about three months before the mission is impractical.

"The commission would have approximately three months to complete the entire process, rendering it impractical," the statement reads.

Furthermore, the IEBC said the data flaws affecting the Northeastern countries remain unaddressed.

The 2019 population figures for Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties remain invalidated by the courts and under appeal.

"The commission needs a valid and legally binding Kenya Housing and Population census report," Ethekon said, declaring the essential dataset "unusable for official purposes".

MPs had acknowledged the controversy but still pressed for the process to begin.

But IEBC says without valid data, a lawful review cannot proceed at all.

The IEBC also presented an operational argument against the demand for immediate review.

It listed concurrent "critical electoral activities" including by-elections, voter registration, institutional reforms, and the massive undertaking of preparing for the 2027 election itself.

"Undertaking full delimitation alongside other competing and equally critical obligations would create significant operational bottlenecks and compromise overall electoral preparedness," the commission argued.

The assertions reflect a prioritisation of election stability over boundary reform, conflicting with the MPs' singular focus on the delimitation as a standalone constitutional necessity.

In what can be seen as a partial olive branch, the IEBC outlined its "phased approach," which initiates action as MPs demanded but on its own terms.

IEBC says it will "immediately upscale preparatory and technical activities," including data collection and stakeholder engagement.

However, the work will be "scaled down at least 12 months before the 2027 election to allow full institutional focus on election preparedness."

The substantive act of redrawing boundaries is explicitly deferred to the post-2027 period.

In essence, there will be no changes to constituency or ward boundaries ahead of the 2027 general election.

"Existing boundaries will remain in effect."

MPs, however, armed with oversight authority and their own constitutional interpretation, are unlikely to accept this outcome.

Meanwhile, 27 constituencies whose protected status lapsed in 2024, including Voi, Lamu West, and Mvita, will now contest the 2027 election with their boundaries as they are.

INSTANT ANALYSIS

By publicly ruling out a pre-2027 review, the IEBC has forced the issue into the open. It frames its decision as the only ‘constitutionally sound and legally defensible course of action’ to protect the election itself. Parliament may summon the commission for a showdown, explore legislative measures to compel action, or the conflict may spill back into the courts.