DNK International By Our Reporter,Nairobi.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Erastus Edung Ethekon has confirmed that the Commission will not undertake any substantive boundary review before the 2027 General Election, opting instead for a “phased approach” that defers all changes to constituencies and wards until after the polls.
Speaking during a media briefing in Nairobi on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, Ethekon said the decision was informed by constitutional requirements, judicial guidance, resource limitations and the electoral calendar, effectively locking in the existing 290 constituency framework for the next election.
Ethekon framed the move as a deliberate choice to safeguard the credibility of the 2027 polls, arguing that forcing a rushed boundary delimitation process would trigger legal disputes and logistical failures capable of undermining the election.
While acknowledging that boundary review is central to the constitutional principle of “one person, one vote, one value,” he said prevailing conditions made compliance with Article 89 timelines unattainable without risking institutional collapse.
The delay is rooted in years of disruption at the Commission, following a leadership vacuum that lasted nearly 30 months between January 2023 and July 2025, during which the Secretariat lacked legal authority to make boundary policy decisions.
Even after the new Commission assumed office, the Boundaries Review Operations Plan (BROP) 2025, which requires at least 24 months to complete a full review, clashed with the constitutional requirement that any review applicable to a General Election be concluded at least 12 months before polling day, setting an August 10, 2026 deadline that IEBC says is impossible to meet.
The Commission’s position has been reinforced by a Supreme Court advisory opinion issued on September 5, 2025, which affirmed that the Secretariat could not lawfully conduct boundary delimitation in the absence of commissioners.
Further complicating the process is ongoing litigation over the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, currently before the Court of Appeal, which invalidated census data for several constituencies in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera, leaving IEBC without legally binding population figures required for delimitation.
Ethekon also pointed to legal contradictions, including Article 89’s cap of 290 constituencies, which bars the creation of new constituencies without a constitutional amendment, and a conflict between the Constitution and the County Governments Act, which limits wards to 1,450 despite IEBC’s constitutional mandate to review their number and boundaries.
He said these contradictions can only be resolved through legislative intervention.
Under the phased approach, IEBC will focus before 2027 on technical preparation such as geospatial data collection, GIS mapping, acquisition of geolocation tools and internal capacity building, while pursuing legal and institutional reforms.
All politically sensitive decisions, including boundary changes, constituency name alterations and population based redistribution, have been deferred until after the election.
The Commission’s caution is further reinforced by funding constraints, after it received Sh41 billion against a requested Sh63 billion for the 2027 polls, leaving a KSh22 billion shortfall.
[DNK-International@January 27,2026]
