President William Ruto has nominated Erastus Edung Ethekon, a legal expert from Turkana County, as the new chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Alongside Ethekon, Ruto proposed six other candidates for commissioner roles, forwarding their names to the National Assembly for vetting, as announced by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei on Thursday.
The nominees for IEBC commissioner positions include Ann Njeri Nderitu, the current Registrar of Political Parties; lawyer Moses Alutalala Mukhwana; Mary Karen Sorobit; Hassan Noor Hassan; Francis Odhiambo Aduol; and Fahima Araphat Abdallah.
These selections follow recommendations from a panel led by Dr Nelson Makanda, which on May 6 submitted two candidates for chairperson and nine for commissioner roles.
The President’s final choices are meant to fill long-vacant posts in the IEBC, which has not had even a chair as the head of the Commission since the passing of Mr Wafula Chebukati in February.
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But who exactly is Edung Ethekon?
Erastus Edung Ethekon, aged 48, brings extensive legal and governance experience to the IEBC Chair role. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Laws in 2001 and earned a Postgraduate Diploma from the Kenya School of Law in 2003. He also holds advanced degrees from the UK and Spain, including a Master of Laws in Oil, Gas & Energy Law from the University of Derby (2016) and a Master of Science in Project Management from the University of Liverpool (2013).
A British Chevening Fellowship recipient, he also has a Postgraduate Certificate in International Human Rights Treaties from the University of Nottingham in England.
Until recently, Ethekon served as Turkana County’s attorney, a role he held from 2018 to 2024, while running a private legal consultancy.
His nomination was chosen over high-profile contenders, including former Judiciary Chief Registrar Anne Amadi and ex-Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution Chairperson Charles Nyachae.
Parliament is expected to vet Ethekon and the commissioner nominees in the coming weeks, with hearings likely to draw significant public attention. This is because the nominations come after months of delays in reconstituting the IEBC—a matter that drew concern from civil society, political stakeholders, and various rights groups.
Under Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act 2011, the National Assembly has 28 days to vet and approve the nominees, but the President has urged MPs to speed up the process.
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