Article 38 of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to make political choices, which includes the right to form, or participate in forming a political party; to participate in the activities of, or recruit members for, a political party; or to campaign for a political party or cause.
In actualizing the Constitutional provisions, section 7 of the Political Parties Act 2011 (PPA) requires political parties to recruit as members, not fewer than one thousand registered voters from each of more than half of the counties, who reflect regional and ethnic diversity, gender balance and representation of special interest groups.
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) charged with the mandate of registering and regulating political parties, has established a political parties management information for processing political parties’ data and records in line with Section 34B of PPA. To ensure inclusivity for all citizens to enjoy political rights including the minority and marginalised communities who may not have access to the internet or mobile phones, ORPP has provided a leeway for manual means of recruitment of political party members.
A political party recruiting persons who have no access to mobile services or may not be technologically literate, including the use of USSD, SMS, or internet services will be required to provide the following information:
- Duly filled Political Party Membership Form (PPM 1)
- Notice of resignation (where necessary)
- A copy of ID of the recruited person (two sides)
- A duly filled consent form
- A duly filled declaration form
- Details of the recruited person provided using the prescribed bulk upload template in Excel or csv format (template attached)
The following nomenclature is to be used in naming the above documents:
- ID Number_PPM1 for example 12345678_PPM1
- ID Number_Resignation for example 12345678_ Resignation
- ID Number_ID for example 12345678_ ID
- ID Number_Consent for example 12345678_ Consent
- ID Number_Declaration for example 12345678_ Declaration
In submitting a manual application, the recruiting political party will be required to submit the following documents to ORPP headquarters or the nearest county office located in Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Nyeri, Isiolo, Kitui, Garissa, Nyahururu, Kitale, Malindi or Bungoma:
- Forwarding letter in hard copy listing all the members recruited and their details
- A branded CD/DVD containing the supporting documents of all the recruited persons listed in (1) above
Note: Incomplete applications will not be accepted. The party will therefore be required to remedy incomplete applications before processing.