Former Chief Justice Maraga pledges to reform IEBC and uplift youth in 2027 bid

Former Chief Justice David Maraga has pledged to overhaul the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and remove financial barriers that shut young Kenyans out of politics.

Speaking during an interview on K24 TV, Maraga said if given the chance, he would prioritise restructuring the IEBC to ensure fairness, transparency, and greater youth participation in elections.

“If given a chance, one of the first things I would do is to restructure the IEBC. The goal is to ensure that our youth have a real chance to run for office without needing billions of shillings. We need to take money out of politics,” he said.

Maraga decried the influence of money in Kenya’s political system, saying it locks out talented and deserving young people from leadership.

“Somebody spends billions of shillings, wonderful, but all that money is money that they have stolen. Even those who bring out money, we must ask, where did it come from?” he posed.

The former CJ condemned rampant vote-buying, warning that politicians are exploiting economically desperate citizens to gain power.

“You go to a campaign rally, and people are lined up, being given Sh500 each. It’s not because they like those politicians so much, it’s because they’re desperate. That Sh500 means a meal for the day,” he said.

Maraga also criticised the current leadership for failing to uphold constitutional values like inclusivity, integrity and accountability.

“We have Article 10, which talks about the principles of governance. We’re supposed to promote inclusivity, integrity, and accountability, but none of that is being followed,” he said.

He singled out Parliament as the weakest link in implementing constitutional reforms, particularly those concerning gender and disability representation.

“It’s been more than a decade. Parliament was supposed to pass laws so that no more than two-thirds of any elected or appointed body is from one gender. That has never been done,” he said.

Calling for a constitutional reset, Maraga urged a return to core governance principles.

“When we talk about a reset, we mean going back to the Constitution. We’re talking about implementing public finance principles, transparency, accountability and equitable sharing of resources,” he added.

The former CJ also argued that Kenya’s democracy is under threat, citing the government’s response to recent protests and what he termed as the criminalisation of dissent.

“We are getting into a failed State. There is a political and economic crisis in the country that needs to be addressed squarely. You haven’t heard, in a democratic State, where the right to picket, which is in the Constitution, is cramped upon, and those who are picketing, instead of addressing their issues, you want to silence them, you want to kidnap them and kill them. We have never heard, in a peaceful State, a President issuing orders to shoot,” he said.

Maraga directly accused President William Ruto of “terrorising his own people” and revealed plans to challenge him in the 2027 General Election.

“The President is terrorising his own people. Parliament, there is that provision on how to deal with that case. Parliament is supposed to take action when the President is violating the Constitution and impeach him. The President has captured Parliament, so they can’t dare to tell him anything,” he said.

“I have come up, and I have support to remove him in 2027. I am very confident that I will remove him. People are tired, people want change. I don’t have money, and I’m going to appeal to Kenyans. We have set up a website, and within two days in Kenya, we had more than Sh500,000 and those in the diaspora have put in dollars.”

Maraga also warned that Kenya is on the brink of a debt crisis, pointing to rising public debt levels since 2013.

“If we stop wastage and control corruption, we will have enough resources to deal with the challenges we have,” he said.

“Public debt has gone haywire from 2013. It has risen to unimaginable levels that, unless we take care, Kenya is going to default, and if so, we will see what we have never seen. We should ensure institutions are controlled by the law so that nobody can act with impunity.”