Joseph Ngeene of Everett, MA, one of the estimated 2.6 million Kenyans living outside their country who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming 2012 General elections. pic by H.Maina/Ajabu Media
by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, May 06, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C._The mapping exercise to determine if and where voting centers will be situated for the upcoming voter registration for Kenyans in the Diaspora was extended by two weeks.The the new deadline is Sunday, May 15, 2011.
The extension occurred last Friday, one day after an Ajabu Africa story where several Kenyans worried that the initial deadline of Saturday April 31 was too soon for the majority of Kenyans in the USA to register called upon the Kenyan embassy to consider an extension.
Calling and emailing Ajabu Africa News, several Kenyans said that many people were not aware at all of the exercise until it was too late.
“I learnt about this mapping exercise recently, and from talking to different people, I realized that not many Kenyan even visited the embassy website regularly to see the notice”, said George Munyotta from North Carolina.
Munyotta, who is planning to run for a political seat as a Governor in the County of Kiambu, said that he placed several calls to the Embassy and sent an email the week before the deadline last week seeking clarification on the issue but none of them was returned.
Speaking to Ajabu Africa news on Saturday after the deadline was extended, Bishop Joshua Wambua, the Director of the Diaspora Advisory council said that after hearing comments from various people, the embassy decided to extend the deadline to give people a chance to register.
George Munyotta, a Kenyan living in North Carolina who is gunning for the seat of Governor, Kiambu County Council
“It is good that they have extended the deadline with the 2 weeks”, said Joseph Ngeene, a former community organizer with the Madaraka Self-help Community Organization, a community organization project for the improvement of the lives of the residents of Madaraka estate located in Langata, in Nairobi Kenya.
However, Ngeene added that it would be much better if the Kenyan embassy extended the deadline even further since very few people will register within that short period.
“The nature of our life here is work, many people do not have time to go on the internet everyday and look for such information on the embassy website. Extending the deadline and making more outreach efforts in churches and social websites would be very necessary if the embassy wants many people register”, he added.
Though clearly not a voter registration, the mapping exercise crucial to determine on the numbers of Kenyan voters available in various places in USA since for the first time in history, Kenyans in the Diaspora will be eligible to vote in the upcoming 2012 general elections to adhere to stipulations in the new Kenyan constitution.
According to information on the embassy website, the mappings exercise if a precursor to the actual voter registration that will kick off in September this year.
There is an estimated 2.6 million Kenyan residing in many foreign countries outside their motherland in what is popularly known as the Diaspora.
Kenyan politicians are increasingly getting aware of the fact that these Kenyans could prove to be a crucial game- changing swing vote hence the urgent need to register as many of them as possible.
Bishop Joshua Wambua of the Kenyan Diaspora Advisory Committee
However, it remains a big challenge to locate and register such voters and hence it needs a lot of work by the embassy in coordination with established systems in the Kenyan community in the Diaspora for this to happen since it is difficult to locate where many of these Kenyans are living at.
Also, many of them are wary of whether their living situations will be disrupted if they register using their passports with the Kenyan Embassy.
Asked why the Kenyan Diaspora Advisory council together with the officials from the Embassy did not make the very important announcement when they visited Boston for the recent marathon exercise, Bishop Wambua said that an oversight was committed and the announcement was not made.
“With every new organization, there are some teething problems and this was one of them before we get ourselves together to provide information at the right time”, said the Bishop.
“However, let everyone know that we have managed to get an extension of two weeks to end on the May 15.” he added.
Asked why the embassy was not sending important press releases or announcements important to the community through the established Kenyan media and social networks where thousands of Kenyans visit for news, the Bishop said that the Embassy had already posted the announcement of their website and thought many Kenyans were visiting the website.
