Mapping for Kenyan Diaspora Voters to End in 2 days
By Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted April 27, 2011
WASHINGTON D.C_ According to information gathered from the Kenyan Embassy website, a process of mapping voter registration centers has been going on and is scheduled to end in two days ( Saturday, April 31), leaving many Kenyans who have been unaware of the process with barely any time to register their presence.
However, the notice on the website clearly states that the mapping process in itself is not the actual voter registration, which is expected to begin in September this year.
According to express language in the new constitution, Kenyans in the Diaspora will for the first time be allowed to vote for their leaders in a process that will be coordinated by the Kenyan Embassies abroad.
During a meeting with Kenyans last week, the Kenyan prime minister, Hon. Raila Odinga said that the upcoming 2012 general elections will not take place without the involvement of Kenyans living abroad estimated to be about 2.6 million.
“This can provide a crucial a crucial swing vote for any candidate but only if as many Kenyans as possible register to vote on time”, said Geoffrey Munyotta, a Kenyan living in North Carolina and who is gunning to vie for the Governor of Kiambu County in Central Kenya.
On a telephone call to Ajabu Africa News from his home on Raleigh, North Carolina, Munyotta, a former resident of Massachusetts, decried the short notice that was given for Kenyans to register.
“I do not understand why the Kenyan Embassy in Washington DC had not undertaken a major effort to inform Kenyans in the USA at various occasions about the mapping initiative and the upcoming voter registration”, said the aspiring candidate.
He added that he hoped the Embassy would consider extending the time for the mapping registration so that more Kenyans can be aware of the process and be able to register themselves so that some may not be left out if no voting centers are allocated to their areas.
Several other concerned Kenyans sent emails to Ajabu Africa with the link to the important notice that no one seemed to know for how long it has been sitting on the website since there no posting date provided.
A call to the Kenyan embassy in DC seeking to substantiate the matter was not immediately returned as was placed after I pm, the closing time for consular services at the mission.
“The Interim Independent Electoral Commission’s (IIEC), is in the process of mapping all voter registration centers nationally and internationally to ensure that all eligible Kenyan citizens the world over, exercise their right to vote in the nearest future” reads the notice on the Embassy website.
“Consequently, the citizens residing in the United States (US), Republic of Colombia and Mexico are expected to register themselves on or before April 30th, 2011 in order to support the IIEC plan and management of the mapping process”, continues the notice.
Further, the Embassy informs Kenyans that the effectiveness and efficiency of the mapping exercise “will greatly depend on collaborative efforts between the Kenya Embassy, Washington D.C. and Kenyans in the Diaspora, in the US, Mexico and Republic of Colombia.”
Kenyans are therefore requested to visit the Embassy website and register themselves accordingly in a brief and easy to undertand registration form that requires a persons passport information as the legal details needed.
To visit the embassy website and register yourself on or before Saturday, April 31, click here.
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