A Kenyan has moved to the High Court in Nairobi seeking to stop the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from completing the recruitment of 72 senior electoral officials, arguing that the process was not opened to the wider public despite the positions being permanent public offices.
Lewis Albhai Itenya has filed a constitutional petition at the Milimani Law Courts, under the certificate of urgency, challenging the recruitment of 18 County Election Managers and 54 Senior Election Officers.
Itenya wants the court to halt the recruitment and interviews, arguing that IEBC advertised the positions internally and limited applications to serving Commission employees, denying other qualified Kenyans an opportunity to compete.
According to court documents filed by his lawyer, Agweyu Collins, IEBC published an internal advertisement on its portal on May 21, 2026, inviting applications from “competent and result-oriented serving Commission Staff.” The deadline for applications was June 5.
The petitioner says IEBC subsequently shortlisted internal candidates and scheduled interviews for the County Election Manager positions between July 20 and 24, 2026.
He argues that the recruitment violates constitutional requirements on equality, transparency, accountability, fair competition and fair administrative action.
The petitioner argues that because the officers will occupy positions of significant public trust within the constitutional body responsible for elections, their recruitment should meet the highest standards of transparency and competitiveness.
He further alleges that in some counties only one candidate was shortlisted for a vacancy, citing Marsabit and Mandera as examples. In his view, such shortlisting undermined the competitiveness of the process.
Itenya has invoked Articles 10, 27, 47, 73 and 232 of the Constitution, as well as the Fair Administrative Action Act, arguing that IEBC was required to provide equal opportunity and fair competition in the recruitment of public officers.
The petitioner says restricting applications to serving IEBC employees effectively shut out qualified Kenyans who were not already employed by the Commission.
