EMURUA DIKIR BY-ELECTIONS WAS A 2027 THREAT ASSESSMENT.CS Murkomen message to IEBC,Kenyans

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[00:00:00][applause] >> how he intends to address some of the challenges we have thrown on his way. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

[00:00:11]Thank you very much, chair.

[00:00:13]>> [applause] >> Uh please, let's be seated, all of us.

[00:00:15]Thank you.

[00:00:19]Um the chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission uh Mr. Wafula does a double E, ethical.

[00:00:33]Uh it's been said you are a triple E.

[00:00:36]And uh E is E in the past was not a very good a very good grade.

[00:00:45]But I'm told when it is now now when you double the E uh it becomes uh it it is the best grade under CBC.

[00:00:53]>> [clears throat] >> Um so it means exceeding expectations.

[00:00:58]We believe that in the coming elections you will be not only double E, but uh beyond beyond the same.

[00:01:06]Um the uh principal secretary or in the Ministry of uh principal secretary of the Ministry of Interior National Administration Dr. Raymond Omollo and Dr. Richard Kipsang Limo uh the Inspector General of Police and the Deputy Inspector General of Police, senior government officials in the here present. Sorry, all commissioners and the senior officials also from the commission, including the CEO.

[00:01:33]Uh ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

[00:01:36]When I received a letter from the uh chair of the IEBC inviting stakeholders from our ministry for this consultation um I hesitated at the first to think um how can we meet with IEBC?

[00:01:55]Um and then when I looked at the um uh the requests or the areas of consultation the chairman put I realized that IBC uh is taking their mandate very seriously on the preparedness for elections.

[00:02:14]And um and that we had I realized also how serious the responsibility we have as a ministry to support credible and verifiable for elections.

[00:02:26]And so um it may look like a summon from you, chair, but I think it's a consultation. Um in the past um I I some people may have felt that they are big too big to be invited by IBC chair. But for us we are in a position of responsibility and it doesn't matter um who invites us, whether it's a county assembly or a serious institution like IBC, when we are called upon to account for our responsibilities under the constitution, we are ready and prepared to be um held into account. And thank you, chair, because um our focus today is in preparedness for the next elections. Uh a lot of presentations have been put forward, so I will try to be as brief as possible. First, let me start by saying the Minister of Interior National Administration stands ready and prepared to support uh the IBC in delivering on its mandate.

[00:03:27]Our support is anchored in the constitution, the responsibility of the executive to um execute that all that has been passed under the con- constitution, the laws of Kenya. And also we pledge our allegiance to the constitution. Our responsibility is beyond uh political uh functions. We know that um even though governments are formed through a political process, Those who sit in government must always be alive to the fact that our mandate is higher than political functions. Our mandate is to the state and anything that is a threat to the state, whether it is for the from the side you like or the opposite, you must always stand by the constitution and to protect the state. So, I want to make pledge that that is our responsibility and in doing so, um congratulate those who are before us, who came, who facilitated and midwifed last elections, those who served in the capacities we served, those of us who are seated here, for what they did. They did their best to ensure that the last elections was peaceful and you saw from the graph that um it was a peaceful elections.

[00:04:42]Uh despite the challenges they had, despite also the pressure they had, I am I want to congratulate all of them, some of whom now are in the in also political now the other side are playing political role.

[00:04:58]I want to also say that um we have captured clearly the threats.

[00:05:05]Um the first threat First of all, let me say that we know very well that we have um um we have the 2027 election security preparedness framework that is comprising the national election security plan of 2027 um and its implementation framework uh as and the associated standard operation procedures.

[00:05:32]And this uh election preparedness uh security plan has now been completed um and it is needs to be adopted formally and that's why the chair of the IBC had said they need an engagement with the with the with the IG to make sure that there's a formal adoption of this report.

[00:05:53]This framework, the draft framework, has been in incorporates lessons drawn from electoral cycles from the 1992 to the recent by-elections.

[00:06:02]Uh these lessons are particularly important because um on areas of early warnings, management of electoral violence, cyber threats, misinformation, and inter-agency coordination, which um uh also informs hotspot classification, deployment planning, and operational protocols.

[00:06:23]Um at the institutional level, inter-agency coordination structures have been developed and aligned. And the hotspot mapping framework has also been completed. Um as I said, we this report requires a formal adoption um so that then ministries, departments, agencies uh also put in place their budgets for the next financial year to make sure that this is delivered. Now, what have we found in terms of threat assessment?

[00:06:50]And it has been properly presented here.

[00:06:53]Uh political and electoral violence threat, it is common knowledge now in the country that in some areas, there have been serious threats. I'm very happy with what IBC and and the security team was able to deliver yesterday in the by-elections. Um uh to a great extent, there were very minimal uh there was a very minimal uh presence of uh and uh goons and guns in the uh constituency elections and also the um by-elections in the in the in the for the MCAs.

[00:07:26]And so, this issue um we need to deal with it. And the most Mr. Chair, I know your mandate includes also oversighting um election nominations.

[00:07:39]The most threatened place, actually, is not even the final elections. It's usually during the nomination process.

[00:07:46]And sometimes these threats come by way of ethnic and clan-based alignments.

[00:07:54]And they they they create a lot of triggers for tensions in the in the in the in the in the constituencies and so on. In some places when you win a nomination ticket, it's as good as winning elections. So the nomination processes must not be ignored. And therefore the role of the political parties is extremely important. And I appreciate the fact that IBC already has met all the political parties to discuss this issue.

[00:08:20]We need to ensure that on on our part we are busy strengthening the early warning system through the national government administrators and administration structures and security intelligence committee. Across the country we continuously get the intelligence report as to which areas are hotspots. And I want to also appreciate our national intelligence service because they provide credible information for the enforcement part of the police to make sure that we uh deal with these areas.

[00:08:52]There's also uh deployment of preventive security plans to the hotspot areas and enhanced intelligence coordination for rapid response. One of the greatest success of our national security architecture is the inter-agency approach to security response which brings together Ministry of Interior and Defense, the intelligence community, the local community, the community policing. Um there's also continuous stakeholder engagement with political actors and relevant stakeholders. And this is where I want to challenge our political leaders. I want to challenge also both the opposition and those who are in the side. They should be free to engage the IG on any issue.

[00:09:40]I don't see why even if you are in a position, why you should not pick a call and call the county commander or the county or the IG and tell them we have a rally tomorrow here, we have a meeting like this, we would like to be given security. Why you should not write to the IG. That continuous engagement will ensure that we have a very peaceful environment for people to converse their their agenda. Um there is also the second threat is the organized crime and small arms proliferation. The security environment is shaped by organized criminal networks, political guns, and continuous proliferation of small arms and light weapons in some areas. These risks are compounded by