IEBC chairperson candidate Joy Mdivo narrates post-election violence ordeal

Arnold Ngure 25th March, 2025 08:20 PM

Kenya Power and Lighting Company chairperson Joy Mdivo, who is also a candidate for the position of the chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), has narrated an ordeal which led to her resignation in 2008.

Responding to interview questions from the selection panel for the IEBC chairperson and commissioners on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, Mdivo revealed why she had to quit her magistrate job despite being very efficient at the time.

“I used to wait for people to file cases. I was that fast and efficient. Judgments were delivered within minutes and by the time I was resigning from the Judiciary, every single file that I handled had final orders. There is nobody I left in abeyance,” Mdivo remarked.

Low pay

Pressed on why she left the job despite seemingly being happy and efficient, Mdivo noted that despite the hard work and effort she put into the work, the gross salary of a magistrate was Ksh60,000, and she could make more elsewhere.

“That time, the gross salary was Ksh60,000. I got to appoint where the money was not making sense. The easy way was to find creative ways of augmenting my earnings, but I wasn’t going to do that. I am more interested in seeing heaven than I am in living comfortably here on earth,” she revealed.

“The other reason is that I was transferred to Murang’a in 2008 when there was Post-Election Violence. With a surname like Masinde, Murang’a was not exactly the place where a mother with two young babies wanted to be.”

Lockdown

Mdivo went on to note that the violence came to a head, leaving them trapped in the town for days without the possibility of leaving.

“There was this furore one day when Mungiki shut down the town, and I was locked in for seven days. When I was done with that experience, I gave it up. When push came to shove, that was a fairly easy decision to make,” she narrated.

She stated that her experience at KPLC and as an observer makes her a suitable candidate for the IEBC job, noting that the reason why people detest election results in the country is the failure to conduct the process in transparency.

“The primary reason why people are dissatisfied with elections is because they simply cannot understand what went on,” Mdivo, who has amassed 23 years in legal practice, said.

She vowed to make the process more transparent and simplified to reduce the acrimony that more often than not follows announcements of election results by the IEBC.