USAid sets aside Sh200m for free and fair polls projects
The outgoing Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Issack Hassan. PHOTO | FILE
The US has lined up Sh200 million to fund innovative ideas to ensure Kenya’s upcoming General Election slated for August 2017 is free and fair, and to attract women and youth.
The cash will be given in the form of grants to design and implement programmes to enhance voter listing, voter education, women and youth participation, and deployment of a conflict early warning response mechanism.
Roll out of the projects is expected to begin in December this year and end in October 2017, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).
“The purpose of this request for applications is to invite prospective applicants to propose innovative ways to provide targeted election-related programming to support relevant programme components,” says USAid.
The aid agency has hired the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a non-governmental organisation, to implement the project dubbed Kenya Electoral Assistance Programme.
Washington says that as a matter of policy, it will not give any direct funding to the disgraced Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) but through “technical assistance.”
“The US does not directly finance the IEBC but rather in the larger context of support to Kenya’s electoral process, assistance is strategically focused on building the institutional capacity and systems that will ensure the IEBC and other key institutions have the capacity to deliver a free, fair, and democratic election in 2017,” the US embassy’s press office told the Business Daily.
Those eligible to apply for the funding are civil society organisations, community based organisations, non-governmental bodies, religious institutions and not-for-profit firms.
The European Union in March doubled its electoral assistance to Kenya by doling out €5 million (Sh563.7 million) to IEBC, saying it had laid down strict procedures on how the cash will be utilised.
The United Kingdom also said that its support to IEBC will be funnelled through the UNDP, in a bid to ensure the integrity of the funds and co-ordinate programmes.
Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the positions of IEBC commissioners, including Chairman Issack Hassan, vacant after the law reforming Kenya’s electoral processes took effect.
The commissioners, accused of graft and gross incompetence, will however stay in office until their replacements are hired.
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