Why Sifuna wants police officers, soldiers allowed to vote

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna during a CPAC Committee meeting at Bunge Towers, Parliament Buildings. [Elvis Ogina,Standard]

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has now sought a statement on a nationwide concern regarding the voting rights of serving police and other security personnel.

Sifuna wants a statement from the Standing Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights and Foreign Relations, even as the House agreed that this provision will be considered in the Elections Amendment Law currently before it, to ensure that every Kenyan who wants to vote is not left out.

Makueni Senator, Dan Maanzo, who is a member of the Justice committee, agreed that the proposal on voting rights of police officers comes at a time when the amendment law has already been presented by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which will also be expected to appear soon.

“It is also important to note that clerks and other election officials do not vote. Remember elections are about 50+1, so if you do not win with one simply because the right of a police officer who should have voted did not or even a polling clerk,” he said.

Maanzo noted that about 20,000 people do not exercise their rights to vote and it will be important that every registered person is accorded the opportunity and there must be a system to allocate police officers to work where they are registered as voters.

“We hope that these are part of the amendments to be made to ensure that every Kenyan who wants to vote is not left out,” he said.

Nyamira Senator, Okong’o Omogeni, also supported the statement, saying Article 83(3) of the Constitution obligates IEBC to put in place administrative arrangements to allow eligible voters to take part in an election as opposed to losing that chance.

“This problem is not confined to only police officers; we have people who may conceive, and their date of delivery is on the second Tuesday of August 2027. What do you do? We should put in place arrangements to allow people who may be in hospitals, the elderly and we have many jurisdictions we can borrow from,” Omogeni said.

“If you go to the Bahamas, for instance, everyone above 65 years is allowed to come and vote early and also the sick in hospitals as long as they notify the electoral body. All that we need is for IEBC to put in place administrative arrangements to allow early voting; even in the US, many states allow early voting,” he insisted.

He said that successive IEBC bodies have been sleeping on the job and challenged the Justice committee to get it right this time and have a comprehensive list of people who should be allowed to vote early, for instance, the police, army, those unwell, and the elderly.

Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma said the IEBC must facilitate the right to vote to everyone and urged the Justice committee to expand its mandate and look at ways in which many citizens are not facilitated to vote.

“We are requesting that the IEBC thinks outside the box; this voting can be electronic or early voting but we must allow every citizen, including those providing essential services, to cast votes,” Mumma added.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei supported the proposal, saying IEBC must put in place necessary mechanisms to ensure no voter is disenfranchised.

He also urged the House to abandon the proposal to delete the clause on live streaming of election results in polling stations to avoid undermining political freedoms.