The recruitment of new a CEO for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has hit a snag yet again after the human resource firm picked by the commission to help in the exercise rejected the offer.
The ongoing process is the second attempt at hiring the commission secretary after the first failed when IEBC took too long to act upon the applications.
The process was stopped by the Employment and Labour Relations Court on May 20 after the IEBC was found to have flouted the law in the requirements for applicants.
Alpex Consulting Africa Limited (ACAL) surprised the commission when it communicated its rejection of the award last Friday, the day it was supposed to sign the contract.
The firm cited, among other reasons, the fact that it was not involved in the advertisement for the position, that the applications were handled by the management, which is conflicted, given that acting CEO Marjan Hussein is also eyeing the position. It even suggested that IEBC’s image problems arising from past elections were ‘a turn-off’.
The rejection is one of the many setbacks the search of new commission has suffered. Of the 11 firms the IEBC had pre-qualified, only four submitted their bids. The other seven, including PwC Kenya and Deloitte, did not respond.