Raila begins to feel it – Now being openly ignored by Muthaura
Posted by africanpress on January 4, 2009
Raila, Muthaura differ over ECK transition team
By Maseme Machuka and David Ochami
Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the Head of the Public Service have clashed over defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya
(ECK).
The PM’s office is accusing Mr Francis Muthaura of unilaterally appointing a team of former ECK employees to manage the transition to the proposed Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC).
The PM’s office said Muthaura’s action was illegal and wants it reversed.
In a confidential memo from the Office of the President, 38 members of staff were redeployed to be “in the transitional team” awaiting the IIEC, which is yet to be constituted.
In the letter written on Monday, December 29, senior ECK officials totalling 38 were allowed access to their Anniversary Towers offices in Nairobi to oversee the changeover.
Of these, 31 are ECK employees who will band up with six officers from the Ministry of Finance and one from the Ministry of Justice.
The 38 officers form a transition team to ensure smooth changeover from the ECK following its disbandment by Parliament.
The memo asks the Administration Police officers at the offices to allow the listed staff, among them ECK Secretary Suleiman Chege and the Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u, into the offices.
Barred from office
Former ECK employees were barred from accessing their offices after the Government sent them on compulsory leave.
The decision by the Government to send the more than 500 ECK employees home was reached after President Kibaki assented to the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill last Wednesday. An interim electoral agency is to be put in place to carry on electoral reforms.
Sources at the PM’s office said Raila was incensed at the new turn of events. A Press conference that he was to address was cancelled at the last minute as he flew to Mombasa with his family.
The letter reads in part: “Following the disbandment of the ECK it is now necessary that appropriate transitional arrangements, pending the appointment if the IIEC, be put in place to oversee cross cutting issues relating to assets, liabilities, obligations and staff of the defunct ECK.”
It further advises Muthaura not to allow any of the 22 commissioners and members of staff of the defunct ECK into the premises: “All former commissioners and members of staff are barred, by operation of the law, from accessing the records, offices and the premises.
Source.standard.ke
