Nairobi Senator and ODM Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, has accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of violating the constitution in two key decisions which are the replacement of former nominated MP (now Treasury CS) John Mbadi and delayed by-elections.

According to Sifuna’s statement on his X platform account, he criticized the electoral body’s decision to confirm Harold Kimuge Kipchumba as new ODM Nominated MP, replacing CS Mbadi claiming IEBC broke the law by failing to pick Mbadi’s replacement from the same ‘workers’ category.

“When picking Mbadi’s replacement, the commission ignored the law on selecting the next person from the same category in which Mbadi was nominated,” Sifuna stated on X.

This comes a few weeks after IEBC had earlier defended its decision, saying it followed ODM’s nomination list.

“The party list used by the Commission was submitted by ODM on 23rd July 2022 Section 37 of the Elections Act and Regulation 56B of the Elections (General) Regulations, 2012, provide that a party list seat that falls vacant shall be re-allocated to the next qualified nominee in order of gender and priority, as originally submitted by the political party. In this case, the nominee who qualified under the law was Mr. Harold Kimuge Kipchumba, who is of the same gender as Hon. Mbadi and was the next in line on the submitted list,” IEBC previously wrote in defence of its decision

Sifuna also faulted the electoral body for exceeding the 90-day constitutional deadline to conduct by-elections.

“Unless my math is wrong, November 27th is more than 100 days since the vacancies were declared,” he noted.

The accusations come amid growing scrutiny of IEBC’s operations, with the opposition demanding stricter adherence to electoral laws. Meanwhile legal experts have warned the disputes could end up in court if unresolved.