On 27^th June 2022, the Mkenya Daima Steering Committee held an engagement meeting with The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to discuss the private sector perspectives on the current electoral process and on the pre-election environment in Kenya ahead of the general elections in August 2022. 

In the meeting held at Sankara Hotel, KEPSA was led by Martha Cheruto, Deputy CEO – KEPSA Foundation, Dr. Vimal Shah, Chair – Mkenya Daima Initiative and Mr. Mucai Kunyiha – KEPSA Director, Industrialization & Local Investments. Other members of the Mkenya Daima Steering committee present included Mr. Daniel Juma, Mr. Suba Churchill, Ms. Mercy Masila Achola, Ms. Waithera Gaitho, Ms. Annete Kimitei, Mr. Darren Gillen and Mr. Dancun Mochama. Also present was Mr. Vincent Were of the Bodaboda Association of Kenya (BAK) among others.

The high-level IRI and NDI team was led by former president of Nigeria H.E Dr. Goodluck Jonathan GCFR, GCON who was accompanied by Ms. Babra Bhebe-Dube (Executive Director at the Election Resource Centre, Zimbabwe), Mr. Lionel Johnson (Member of the Board of Directors of the National Democratic Institute, USA), Mr. Greg Kearns (Africa Division Director at the International Republican Institute, USA) and Ms. Julia Brothers (Senior Advisor at the National Democratic Institute, USA).

The delegation enquired about Mkenya Daima’s history and impact since its establishment, issues to do with voter education, how the private sector is supporting and engaging with the election management bodies, youth participation in elections as well as political parties financing by the private sector among others.

Giving an introduction on Mkenya Daima, the current private-sector expectations related to election preparedness, Dr. Vimal Shah, said Kenya had come a long way since 2007/2008 with lots of learnings and engagements through the years and which has since contributed to both public and private sector awareness including with the citizenry.

“Drawing our lessons from the past, we have been able to speak truth to power. From citizenship awareness, we have since rallied the citizenry to move from the ‘Haki Yetu’ mantra to ‘Wajibu Wetu’ where we are bringing to the fore the national values of accountability, transparency, and integrity in telling politicians what we want to see in our leaders”, said Vimal.

Mr. Kunyiha said that while elections are inherently simple affairs of electing leaders of various legislative offices, the Kenyan situation was made dynamic by our history of multi-party struggle and the vibrancy of our politicians and the electorate in all the six levels of competitive politics in Kenya.

“Our concerns as the private sector is to ensure that the safety checks around our elections are in place to guarantee a smooth election and that includes working with institutions such as the IEBC, helping them to conduct visibly credible elections by ensuring their competency as well as working with the police to put down the security systems and structures for a free and fair election”, he said.

The engagement meeting also discussed immensely, issues to do with the youth involvement with political manifestos, holding our leaders accountable after elections, and ensuring peace and security towards successful elections on August 9th, 2022.

This was the second Pre-Election Assessment Mission (PEAM) by the IRI/NDI team in Nairobi ahead of Kenya’s General Elections scheduled for August 9, 2022. The IRI/NDI delegation is conducting meetings with key stakeholders in Kenya from government, civil society, political parties, media, private sector, and electoral management bodies. At the conclusion of the mission, the delegation will release a statement based on findings from the various stakeholder interviews.