From: Okiya Omtatah Okoiti
JOINT PRESS STATEMENT BY CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS
A good number of Kenyans, who have carried out searches on the IEBC Website portal at www.iiec.or.ke/rpp, have been shocked to find out that they are members of political parties they never joined or did not even know existed. Apparently, their names were fraudulently used by these political parties to comply with the requirement of the Political Parties Act, 2011, that they recruit “as members, not fewer than one thousand registered voters from each of more than half of the counties.”
Clearly, the Acting Registrar of Political Parties never verified, prior to registering the parties and issuing them with compliance certificates, that each one of the at least 24,000 people, whose names the parties presented as their members, were real members of those parties and that they willingly and freely gave their consent to be so registered, and that the information about them was accurate.
The least the Registrar was supposed to do was to verify with each one of the at least 24,000 founder members presented by political parties that each had consented to be a member of the said party. Apart from protecting the constitutionally secured fundamental rights of individuals, such verification would also prevent mischievous individuals from registering themselves or others in parties they oppose and later claiming that they were fraudulently registered so that those parties can suffer sanctions.
By failing to do that which the law requires or expects of her, the Registrar created a loophole which made it possible for unethical characters, out to register political parties or to harm other parties, to fraudulently use other people’s identities without those people’s prior knowledge or consent.
Under the Constitution, registering anybody as a member of an association of any kind without their prior knowledge and consent infringes on their right to privacy (Article 31). It also amounts to forcing or compelling a person to join an association in contravention of Article 36(2), which categorically states: “Any person shall not be compelled to join an association of any kind.”
It is also improper for the Registrar to publish names of registered party members in a website or in a publicly available register as the same can be used to victimise civil servants and other vulnerable individuals for their political preferences. In fact, it makes no sense to burden citizens by asking them to inspect and validate information that she has already used to certify parties as being compliant with the Political Parties Act, 2011. To make matters worse, not everybody will have the means to check the register and, therefore, many are likely to remain fraudulently listed without both their knowledge and consent. And this could also cause conflict when such a listed person wishes to run as an independent candidate, only to be barred for belonging to a party.
Even if some people check and remove themselves from the register, it will be too little too late since their constitutional right to privacy and the right not to be compelled to join an association of any kind will already have been contravened. All the same we call on all registered voters to verify from the website that their said rights are not being violated.
Ideally, it is the duty of the Registrar to ensure that everybody’s privacy is protected. No person should be compelled, by fraud or whatever means, to be a member of a political party. The Registrar cannot shift the burden of protecting Kenyans from herself to the public. And the duty is not on individuals to cure the injury by removing themselves from parties; the duty belongs to the State to prevent any injury. And this can only be done before, and not after the registration and resultant violation of fundamental rights.
According to Article 47(1) of the Constitution, Kenyans are entitled to administrative action that is expeditious, efficient, lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. In Article 19(3)(a), the Constitution declares that, the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights belong to each individual.
Hence, we call on Ms. Lucy Ndung’u, the Acting Registrar of Political Parties, to resign immediately for having demonstrated gross incompetence that has facilitated the said violations of the constitutionally secured fundamental rights of Kenyans. And the authorities must stop dilly-dallying and move with speed to appoint a substantive Registrar as required by the law.
Further, we also demand that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) asks the Police to thoroughly investigate the violations and immediately de-register all political parties found to have forged even a single name. Fining them Kshs. one million is inadequate and unacceptable if we desire to destroy immunity. In fact, the officials and political patrons of the parties that will be de-registered should be prosecuted and also be barred from being candidates at the coming general elections for having failed the integrity requirements of the new Kenya.
Finally, if Ms. Ndung’u does not resign and/or the IEBC does not deregister the offending political parties, we shall amend our Constitutional Petition against certain provisions of the Political Parties Act, which is pending in the High Court, for orders to that effect. We will also seek orders compelling the IEBC and the offending political parties to compensate victims to vindicate the violation of their constitutional rights by being compelled to be members of political parties.
We will spare no efforts because a river does not flow higher than its source. If we really crave integrity to our politics, then political parties, the Registrar, and the IEBC, who together are the foundation of our electoral process, must be above reproach. If we allow them to get away with the outrage, we will have planted the cancerous seeds of impunity that will kill the new democratic dispensation.
Signed on behalf of all by:
Okiya Omtatah Okoiti – 0722684777
Date: Thursday, May 31, 2012.
—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com