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Kenya, October 30 ,2026 - The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has confirmed that every person now invited for interviews to become its Commission Secretary and Chief Executive Officer is a Kenyan citizen. The agency made the statement after people raised questions about the long list of 304 applicants it published earlier.
IEBC advertised the post openly on 28 July 2026 in newspapers, on its website and on social media. Applications closed on 11 August. The job notice was clear from the start. Anyone hoping to get the job had to be a Kenyan citizen, hold a degree recognised in Kenya, show at least five years of senior management experience, and meet the honesty rules set out in Chapter Six of the Constitution and the IEBC Act.
To keep the process independent, the Commission hired the audit firm KPMG Kenya to handle every step. KPMG placed the advert, collected the forms, checked the papers and drew up the shortlist. When the full list of 304 names went public, some names looked as if they might belong to people from other countries. That is not unusual when a job is advertised widely. Anyone can send in an application. Not everyone meets the basic rules.
IEBC says it checked national identity cards, citizenship papers and school certificates at the first stage. Every foreign applicant was removed then. Only Kenyan citizens stayed on the final shortlist of nine people who will face interviews on 12 and 13 November.
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The Commission published every name on purpose. Kenya’s Constitution tells public bodies to be open and to treat people fairly. By showing the full list, IEBC says it followed those rules. It also says the process stays competitive and based on merit, and it asks Kenyans not to turn a normal hiring exercise into a political fight.
The person who wins this job will run the day-to-day work of the body that organises Kenya’s elections. That person will manage staff, money and records as the country prepares for the next general election. Citizens need to trust that the person chosen belongs to Kenya and has followed the same rules everyone else must follow.
What happens next is straightforward. The nine shortlisted Kenyans will sit for interviews. After that, IEBC will pick one of them. The public will be able to check the outcome against the same documents the Commission has already shared.