Kenya Diaspora Advisory Council of Georgia (KDAC) has launched a massive campaign to ensure that the Diaspora has a chance to vote in 2012 general elections.
As the election fever picks up in Kenya, the non partisan organization want to make sure that Diaspora is not left out and they also have their chance at the ballot box. According to the organization, Diaspora participation in the 2012 general elections is still murky and they have embarked on clarifications from the Kenya government on the process of putting in place a mechanism for logistics and registration of voters.
Through KDAC initiatives, Ambassador Elkana Odembo has spoken to Mr. Isaac Hassan who is the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on the logistics of Diaspora voting in 2012. In response, the commissioner sighted that it should be possible to have remote elections as it has been done before by Sudan and other countries that have large Diaspora communities.
If Kenya government is to follow this model, then the remote election centers would be set up in Diaspora major populated centers where voters would commute to cast their ballots. This would include large cities like Boston,New York,Washington DC,Atlanta,Dallas,Houston,Seattle, Los Angles, Chicago etc.
KEN has learnt that plans are under way for Mr. Hassan and his team to travel to the United States to meet Kenyans on a fact finding mission as they lay out a plan of how to conduct the remote elections. According to KDAC chair David Karangu “Nothing is guaranteed. If Kenyans do not participate by having large turnouts when the chairman of the IEBC visits and engage the commissioner and his teams by letting them know their intentions, then we could miss out this time round”.
According to the Atlanta based organization, there are few key issues that must be addressed. Among them; the already Kenyans who hold citizenships of other countries, be re-instated quickly with their Kenyan citizenship in order to cast their ballot. Another key issue is in the constitution that leaves a loop hole which could sideline Diaspora in 2012 elections if not dealt with. The provision states that “The progressive registration of citizens residing outside Kenya, and the progressive realization of their right to vote…..”. The problem is that by stating the word ‘progressive’ it does not give a timeline of when this should be done, opening the window of shelving the idea till the next general election.
However many Kenyans in Diaspora are very concerned about the integrity of the elections and how rigging and voter fraud would be managed at a remote election held so far away from the motherland. Some of their concerns are that this would create a great opportunity for ‘cooking of the votes’ like what happened in 2007 and they wondered how this would be prevented. According to suggestions tabled by KDAC, one way of preventing that would be to involve international organizations with experience in monitoring elections like the Jimmy Carter foundation. They would help monitor the polls like they have done in the past for other immigrant communities to ensure free and fair elections.
This campaign comes at the backdrop of the ongoing debate in parliament and relevant bodies of moving the election polls to December from the constitutional mandated August to ensure ample time for logistics.
KDAC is planning to work with all Kenyan organizations based in the United States and Europe to inform and rally their communities behind this campaign in order to have their voices heard.
For more information visit their website http://www.kdacga.org/
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