Civil society leaders in Kenya’s Coast region are concerned there has been far less voter education in this election than in previous polls, including by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). “They [the IEBC] are not really visible,” said Yusuf Mwatsefu, executive director at the Human Rights Agenda (HURIA). “There’s not as much voter education in Mombasa this time around.”

A Kenyan woman casts her vote at a mock polling station during a pre-election exhibition in Nairobi, Kenya, June 12, 2017. © 2017 Reuters

Funding for voter education allows organizations to teach voters how to vote, as well as the basic laws of voting, and the roles and responsibilities of elected officials. Ideally, these programs can reduce incidences of spoilt ballots, voter manipulation, and electoral malpractice at polling stations. The IEBC has been a major recipient of such funding in the past, but Coast Regional Coordinator Amina Soud agrees that their programs for 2017 are under-resourced.

Civil society officials attribute the reduction in voter education funds to escalating state threats and intimidation of civil society that forced some local and international donor organizations to scale back their work. In a January 2017 press release, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) alleged that the government of Kenya regularly harassed and intimidated civil society organizations through the NGO Coordination board. The FIDH argued the board was responsible for a smear campaign against the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a key partner in the Kura Yangu, Sauti Yangu (“My Vote, My Voice”) election campaign initiative by a coalition of civil society groups.

The civil society leaders we spoke to pointed to a cycle of intimidation that undermined civic education initiatives more generally, and voter education in particular. Francis Auma at Haki Africa said that there was less donor funding available for elections work in 2017 than in previous cycles. There was a little more money [for this work] in 2013,” said Hassan Abdille, executive director at Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI).

On their part, the IEBC coast office agrees they have not been able to carry out voter education work to the extent that they would like to. Amina Soud, IEBC Regional Coordinator at the Coast, told us that their education initiatives countrywide didn’t begin until June 30.

Mohammed Baroh from the Kwale Human Rights Network said the IEBC programs started too late. “Civic education should be a continuous process,” he said, “but it hasn’t been done…. Why allocate funds for something if you aren’t going to do it?”

Soud said the IEBC was committed to reaching the entire region by election day, but the civil society leaders remain unsure that sufficient time and resources remain. An extraordinary effort from the commission and its partners is needed in these last few days to make this ambition a reality.