Mombasa,KENYA:A section of activists in Mombasa backing a bill by Kimilili MP Chris Wamalwa seeking to have elections date changed from August to December have cited education disruption as their reason for backing the change.
Lead by Jackline Polo-Kawere a senior legal counsel of FIDA in Mombasa, the activists argue that an August election could cause teacher to rush over to complete syllabuses incase of an election annulment or rerun just like last year,
“It’s the classes that are used as polling station, and our teachers some of them act as IEBC officers during the election, so having it on August it disrupt learning. And in the event that we have a re-run or a repeat election like what we witnessed last year, learning will be disrupted a big time”, said Jackline.
Her views were seconded by Mombasa based Political activist Grace Oloo.
“If we have election on August, our teachers will rush in making sure they finish the syllabus before August elections to avoid any interruptions,” said Ms Grace Oloo.
The activists were speaking during the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee summit in Mombasa on Friday .
The committee was collecting collecting views from Kenyans on on the proposed bill in a team lead by Tharaka MP George Gitonga and Rabai MP William Kamoti.
The legislators met representatives from different groups, who expressed mixed views with others preferring the date to remain in August .
The bill if passed will have election held on the third Monday of December , unlike in the 2010 Constitution which prescribes elections to be held every second Tuesday of August .
