Prisoners sue IEBC seeking expanded voting rights
Four prisoners have sued the electoral agency seeking to be allowed to vote for other representatives, not just the President.
In their petition at the High Court in Mombasa, Douglas Onyango, Edwin Njuguna, Samuel Mwaghania and Haron Mberia want the related actions of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared illegal.
Prisoners were allowed to vote in the 2010 referendum and in the 2013 and 2017 elections for the President, but they are not allowed to vote for other representatives.
“We the petitioners feel that we are discriminated (against) by the administrative actions of IEBC for failure to allow and include us to vote for the Governor, Senator, MP, Woman Rep and MCA during the General Election of 2013 and 2017,” the prisoners say in their affidavit.
This, they say, violates the Constitution and they want IEBC’s administrative actions to be declared null and void.
The petitioners, who have also sued the Attorney-General, say they should be allowed to elect candidates of their choice that they feel can provide better services to marginalised groups like those behind bars.
They also argue that denying them a chance to vote for other representatives bars them from realising their full potential as human beings.
“We the petitioners wish the court to intervene partially from a constitutional front alleging breach of fundamental rights to vote,” they argue.
“We have said partially because we are complaining about the administrative action by IEBC as a result of failure to allow and include us to vote for the five representatives after allowing us to vote for the 2010 constitutional referendum and the past two presidential elections in 2013 and 2017.”
They want the court to declare that the IEBC’s administrative actions have denied, violated and infringed their fundamental rights to vote.
They want to be allowed to vote for the five representatives in the August 9, 2022 General Election. BY DAILY NATION
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