FILE PHOTO: Kenya's President William Ruto looks on during his swearing-in ceremony at Moi International Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya September 13, 2022. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenya's President William Ruto has approved a new chairperson and commissioners to head the elections commission, a legal notice showed, filling positions of critical influence in a country with a long history of contentious polls.
The East African nation's next general election will be held in 2027, but Ruto is already under pressure from street protests led by young Kenyans dissatisfied with high living costs, corruption and police brutality.
The new chairman and six commissioners appointed to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will serve for the next four years, according to the notice issued late on Thursday. They were due to be sworn in on Friday.
Ruto suspended four election commissioners in December 2022 after they rejected his victory in elections held earlier that year. The dispute proceeded to the Supreme Court, which upheld Ruto's win and rejected the commissioners' arguments that the vote tallying process had been opaque.
The commission had been operating without a chairperson or commissioners since 2023, when the terms of the former chairman and the two remaining commissioners expired.
The appointment of new election commissioners, who are chosen by an interview panel and then submitted to the president for approval, had been delayed in part due to several legal petitions, which a high court dismissed on Thursday.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly and Joe Bavier)
