Southern Sudanese to play the harp in Kakuma;
Owing to the pending Referendum to give Southern Sudan the opportunity to vote for either unity or secession, SSRC has set up centers in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Other towns in Kenya where Sudanese should vote are: Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale and Daadab. Southern Sudan Referendum
Commission(SSRC) is absolutely neutral. Yesterday, registration despite its hardest layout of understanding winged its way on. The youth play the harp of unfolding the necessities of voting to the aged and the illiterates. To the literates the out-of-country registration and voting (OCV) Kenya information sheet speaks. The registration and the pending Referendum are open to voters who have registered who are above eighteen years of age. Part of the information which may suspend voters is the fact that readers may read on the information sheet as if only Dinkas are allowed to participate in the out-of-country registration and voting. It was cited in reality.
The sheet too doesn’t show centers where voting will take place in Kitale. This has made it possible to read information to instill awareness and mobilise Southern Sudanese around the Registration sites and on the road to let them get information for clarity. Southern Sudanese are urged to Register before possibilities last. Failures to register soil their fats.
No voting on the ninth of January, 2010 if one can’t produce a laminated registration card.
The Nuba, Blue Nile and Kordofan stand loose yet unable to fall into the registration and employment queues. Better the SSRC has dug down doubts by ensuring a Toll-free all over Kenya. Twelve hours of free call from six in the morning to six in the evening is enough to swallow the leftovers.
Eligibility and registration;
The camp, Kakuma has a number of nationalities which may tend to admire voting. Southern Sudanese have to present written certificates or documents issued by a Sudanese authority even if expired or a document issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-UNHCR. If not an identifier should either deny or accept your identity. Articles 25 and 27 stipulated in the Southern Sudan Referendum Act 2009, classifies voters into the categories below:
a) Voters from the indigenous communities in Southern Sudan, that’s to say if Shilluk which entered Sudan on or before the first of January, 1956 are allowed to vote out of Southern Sudan.
b) Voters who trace their ancestry to one of the indigenous Southern Sudan communities but did not reside in Southern Sudan without interruption before or since January, 1956 can only vote in the South where they can be identified.
c) Finally, voters not belonging to any of the indigenous communities of Southern Sudan whose parents and grand-parents permanently resided in the south on or before January, 1956 can vote only in the South.
This information is verified at the centers to avoid misconceptions and to ensure Southern Sudanese are adequately informed. Agnes, the mobile operator for the SSRC in Nairobi encouraged me to let you register without fail. Totally if you think a goat and a leopard can share a room, you won’t say I told you. This out-of-country registration will take place in eight countries which include Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Canada, U.S.A, UK and Australia, said Mapur, a registrar at Rajaf Primary School. In Kenya registration takes place in:
a) Nairobi with center at; Nairobi railway club, Uhuru Park, Haile Selasie Avenue
b) Eldoret has a center at; Rupa mills at Ken Knit, Uganda road
c) Nakuru center is at; Menengai social hall near Menengai High School
d) Kitale center is; The National Museum
e) Daadab center is at; Family centre two, Ifo Daadab
f) Kakuma centers are; Rajaf Primary School and Clinic two.
These centers are adequately secured beyond any doubt. Hands are checked before registration and you go through illegibility examination which when you are affirmed as illegible a form is filled showing your names, age, gender and address. Right thumbprint is placed on the form and registration card. The card is laminated in the center to ensure you don’t return. You will not leave without an inked index finger and you are done.
A card can be canceled;
a) If a mistake is made filling the entry or a card
b) When the details on the card are incorrect though laminated
c) If the lamination of the card is not performed correctly
Should you lose the card or fail to register you are nothing to vote. Those who had not gone back to Sudan where the documents are found and have no documents from UNHCR are assisted by the community leaders. Nobody registers on behalf of the other and voting is effective where you have registered.
The criticized delegates;
The team of Elizabeth Nyawuro which had some officials from the Government of Kenya and the international observers as put by Nyak and Mapur took a wrong foot. These delegates left the youth complaining camp wide that corruption lifted up in the nation-Sudan has been carried to a refugee camp. Wrong of the wrongs which was a mess was asking of community leaders to select qualified people in the camp. These leaders ended up selecting friends and relatives who were interviewed and found unable to work effectively.
The twist came on thirty first of October. Posters appeared on the notice boards needing forty polling staffs, eight civic educators and one outreach supervisor. The people who were discouraged who’re qualified could not complete the race. Mapur said the applicants were three hundred and seventy passed. Nyak who had wasted his energy told me before the outcome that he wasn’t expecting to succeed due to corruption he had witnessed. He accused the delegates of glaring, nodding and saying,” It’s okay” which is not a means of interviewing people. The shortlisted applicants were posted in the evening, said Jumla, those who arrived on time were all employed instantly. They kept saying that those who were late were denied interviews even if they didn’t know.
These accusations are not admitted to by the employees, trainers and the Mobile operator I talked to. The successful applicants were induced from twelve-fourteen of November. They are still being instructed by the out-of-country officers who are available in all the centers in the camp. They monitor the running of registration, said Mapur, a registrar.
The failures have gone far that the pay was deducted by UNHCR from thirty dollars to fifteen dollars per day to retain their workers but I can’t see the hand of UNHCR for this matter. Agnes herself knocked it out that a rumour as such is fake. It’s not to be depended on. Akran, the UNHCR staff whom I called by phone said the registration is not about UNHCR but the Kenyan Government and the IOM and that’s the fact. “To us if it will bring peace in Sudan, we support it,” she said. These accusations must be bygone. Southern Sudanese should keep high their heads hoping to play the harp they spearhead. A separate harp, you think it wiser, go don’t let go!