NAIROBI, Kenya: The enhanced continuous voter registration abroad officially ended
yesterday, with hardly 10,000 new registrations. This is against an anticipated 1 million
potential voters, or so. Was it worth it? The impact of it will only be seen in the coming
months and years. This was the right thing to do, even if we were to register only 100
voters! It is their inalienable, God-given right, and also a civic duty. Those who make
great effort to register and/or mobilize others to do so, in some cases at great expense
financially and time-wise, must be complimented.
Nonetheless, the question must be asked: why were the actual registrations so low?
The Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA) and affiliates have been at the forefront of agitation
for diaspora voting and other citizen rights for about 30 years. The efforts have
included litigation up to the Supreme Court, lobbying the highest offices on the land,
presenting petitions, roadshows across the globe, and many more. Below is our take on
the dismal performance:-
1) Failing to Plan (Properly), is Planning to Fail
We consider this old adage the singular most significant reason for the low
registration levels, and we communicated as much to IEBC through open letters.
The diaspora constituency is a very complex and diverse one. It requires proper
planning. The Supreme Court in “KDA vs Republic of 2015” ruling directed IEBC to
file reports every year of plans and infrastructure put in place to register diaspora
voters with both Speakers of Parliament and the President. This has never
happened. Adequate preparation and planning is an absolute requisite for successful
enlightenment, mobilization and registration of diasporas. And it is not enough to do
this only with Embassies and High Commissions. Mistake #2.
At the beginning of last November, KDA hosted a very successful ‘Diaspora
Mainstreaming’ Webinar that was meant to be a build-up for a successful diaspora
voter enfranchisement. The promotion ran thereafter for a month, with over 1.6
million views from 127 different countries recorded. It culminated into the 8th
Annual Kenya Diaspora Homecoming Convention in December, whose theme,
however, was ‘remittances’. While IEBC participated at the Webinar through a senior
officer, the will to collaborate, build and maintain momentum thereafter (and clarity
of plans) was absent. The event was co-hosted with Elections Observation Group
(ELOG), which later hosted a National Conference on ‘Election Preparedness’, graced
also by IEBC and KDA, among other key actors. During the Conference, KDA
submitted to IEBC that ‘with the arrangements in place, should they register
100,000 diaspora voters, they would be very lucky’. Time has vindicated us. This
even after IEBC Chair traveled to London, and during a presentation he estimated
they would be able to register at least 50% of those eligible. It turns out that even
getting 1% is not child play. Had we built upon the November Webinar, and
maintained momentum especially on social media where most diasporas are, results
would have been different. KDA has in the past been an Official Partner and
Stakeholder in IEBC’s planning. Going forward, this is a matter hopefully to revisit
for common good.
2) Embassies & High Commissions elected to Work with Newcomers
Juba (South Sudan) and Doha (Qatar) appear to be the only two stations that were
able to break the magic 1,000 strands. While the idea of KDA was mooted in
Delaware, USA, it was first actualized in Juba. For Qatar, the compliments must be
shared with the Qatar Diaspora SACCO. Elsewhere, the figures weren’t impressive at
all. Worse, the major destinations, USA and UK. The Missions elected to work with
and rolled red carpets to newcomers in this game, neglecting traditional,
established community networks and their leaders. Work with the new, yes, but
don’t discard the old. They are gold! A few government emissaries and IEBC officials
were sent to target destinations across the globe. The results are out there for all to
see. And no single entity can lay claim to the majority of those who ended up
registering. In this regard, efforts by Ambassador in Qatar, and Commissioner
Justus Nyang’aya in the USA are exceptions and deserve commendation. This
despite the USA turning low numbers. The mistake to rely exclusively on Embassies
is not new; it happened first in 2012, during the National Manpower Survey by
KNBS was meant to cover diaspora as well. The recent Remittances Survey by
CBK wasn’t an exception either. Kila mji ina Mzee wake; you go to Berlin or Kigali,
people will tell you for matters Kenyan, look for so and so!
Embassies are important, but in their own way inadequate. On average, barely
more than 5-10% of Kenyans in a jurisdiction ever visit or have anything to do with an Embassy. And the story is the same in Canberra as it is in Pretoria. Perhaps this
was planned to fail from day 1: voter suppression?
3) Inconvenience and Cost to Register
The only day we shall have true ‘democratic inclusion – theoretically 100%’, is the
day we shall introduce mobile and online (electronic) voting. We pioneered this with
MPesa, why can’t we use MKura, M-Vote and i-Vote.net, all which are proudly
Kenyan products that are secure and available? Some use cutting edge trust
technologies – block-chain. To expect a senior diasporian residing in Fiji to pay
$5,000 to travel 1st class to Kenya (spending over 30 hours), and repeat the same 3
months later to vote is to ask for too much. That’s 1 million Shillings, and you
haven’t factored in spouse, children etc. The situation isn’t any better from someone
who has to travel from Seattle to Los Angeles or Washington DC, or Aberdeen
(Scotland) to London to register, and stay overnight in costly hotels. There were
even senior community members who offered their offices to be used, hired shuttles
to ferry voters across cities, hosted barbeque parties, ran media shows, etc. With
proper coordination and cooperation, much more would have been achieved. It is
unacceptable for IEBC to feign lack of laws on electronic voting, while aspects of our
electoral process is already electronic, notably biometrics.
In the absence of mobile/electronic registration, the next best thing would be to
have mobile registration centres. The Embassies and High Commissions could lease
temporary office space, for instance in Johannesburg where significant numbers of
Kenyans reside, to facilitate easy registration. But then, one may ask: how come
even those in Tswane (formerly Pretoria) itself didn’t come out to register? Apathy.
4) Voter Apathy and Disillusionment
To say that Kenyans (including diasporas) have been deeply disappointed and
disgruntled by leadership, past and present – more so the Jubilee Administration is
an understatement. There are many Kenyans on social media who have said: can’t
they just give us back our country the way they found it? These are not idle
concerns, despite the few positive notable achievements. The massive public debt,
with no commensurate ROI to show for it is a dark spot. Besides, despite the new
Constitution proffering public participation, the government has rarely involved the
citizenry in governance. To the extent that even a popular initiative to change the
Constitution has to be chaperoned by leadership! Matters haven’t been helped by
claims of election rigging: it is not those who vote, but those who count the votes
that matter. Even devolution that was meant to help, hasn’t. Few counties have
much to show for it. Joblessness, ravaging poverty, hopelessness, nepotism,
clientelism, etc are very much order of the day. Leaving youth and diasporas with
little to no enthusiasm to register to vote. It will be an uphill task to surmount this
sad predicament. Yet the elite prefer it that way – a perfect form of voter
suppression. Abated, deliberately or inadvertently with administrative hurdles.
5) Administrative and Logistical Hurdles
Last but not least, were the glaring impediments that IEBC itself put on the way of
diaspora voter registration! Why on earth, for instance, would IEBC insist on voters
using exclusively (valid) passports, while the law allows the option of national ID?
And this despite the earlier experience with EAC voters that prompted KDA in 2015
(and now, Patriot Okiya Omtatah) to go to court to remove that restriction? Had
IEBC consulted sufficiently with diaspora community leaders, such mistakes would
have been avoided pronto. Then in the case of Germany, the registration materials
understandably were taken to another city, far away from the target, Berlin. In
London, officials were days late on arrival ostensibly for lack of travel documents
which one would have thought were prepared earlier, and with no prompt
communication even to the High Commission. Then, why give diasporas only 2
weeks to register, while voters at home had a combined 7 weeks? Diasporas
actually needed more, given the circumstances of distance, geography, and above
else the fact that there is no continuous voter registration in those centres. And
more. Then of course there were factors beyond human control: storms and snow in
some places, ravaging COVID-19 that impaired one arrangement or another, etc.
All in all, there are many useful lessons learnt. It was a worthy effort, and despite
the fact that the 13 destinations alone, out of a possible 50, where Kenya has
embassies and high commissions is far inadequate, as KDA and affiliates we are
grateful that at least some effort has been made to enfranchise diasporas. We
appeal to all those who have registered to ensure they turn up on voting day to
cast their vote and exercise their democratic right to elect leaders of choice.
Sincerely,
Dr. Shem Ochuodho
KDA Global Chairman
For more information please contact:-
Amb. Zia Beja (+254-729-940094) or Cizarina Nasirumbi (+254-715-
127006)
Email: info@kenyadiasporaalliance.org, https://TheDiasporaPortal.com/
About Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA)
The Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA) is a Registered Trust, and a Federation of forty
six (46) registered Diaspora organizations with a nominal combined membership of about 250,000 Kenyans across the globe. KDA’s affiliated memberships include:
welfare, cultural, faith-based, social, philanthropic, educational, professional and
business associations, among others.
The Diaspora Investment Club (DICL) is KDA’s business and investment arm. It is a
limited liability company, presently with start-up businesses in real estate, financial
and securities markets, agribusiness, mini-industries, tech-novation (mobile apps),
and business/investment consultancy.
