Staff put in extra hours to help parties meet timelines
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) has lately been a beehive of activities with increased inperson service requests from customers seeking varied services. Topping the service requests from months February through April and on, have been matters relating to; membership resignations; submission and/or membership lists for certification and requests for certification of membership status & proposed symbols of persons intending to vie in the 2022 general election as independent candidates among others.
ORPP staff, Justus Osore (seated) attends to clients at a makeshift service bay at 4th floor headquarters
Latest also, issuance of certified registers to parties has been a regular service. Responsible Directorates andDepartments have correspondingly adjusted their working schedules and mode with some days recording near 24-hour cycle service from dedicated staff with the Registrar of hand every step to give necessary strategic guidance. On the 26th Deadline which fell on a Saturday, a section of staff spent entire daytime and night running to Sunday dawn to serve influx of clients who trooped in the dying hours to the deadline. The county offices have also joined the conundrum in timely sending to the headquarters applications and other requests submitted through respective offices so as to reach on time and be processed accordingly. In the past over two weeks upon the deadline of party membership lists of 26th March,2022 , the situation has not been any different, with skyrocketed number of political parties representatives making follow ups and given a chance to undertake necessary validation touches against submitted membership lists.
Validation of membership lists
The tail-end of last week, 4th boardroom at the ORPP headquarters was turned into a ‘clinic’ on which party representatives were granted opportunity to identify any disparity between membership lists submitted within the timeline and their party aspirants lists. Staff lead by Compliance and ICT departments with close guidance in their respective Directorates, dedicated their time of their of busy schedule to guide and act on emerging issues that came up on validation exercise.
Party representatives during validation exercise in 4th floor boardroom
The certification process has since been issued to stakeholders. “The process of certification of the registers will entail; verification of data of party registers will entail certifying that persons in the membership lists meets the requirements of the Political Parties Act, 2011; confirming that aspirants lists submitted are verified against membership register to ascertain that the aspirants are members of respective parties”, guided the Registrar of Political Parties, Ann Nderitu in a press briefing at ORPP headquarters on 29th March, 2022. She further assured that any emerging administrative concerns (if any) that may emanate from the verification will be handled on case-by-case basis with the concerned political party.
“Upon verification, Registrar will issue a certified party membership register in printed format and a read- only soft copy to each of the party”, read the press briefing attended by over 12 different outfits. Working overdrive has extended post-validation exercise, with a section of ICT team steering the printing and production of electronic registers on schedule. The printing of the registers that are well-laden with security features, was done with close supervision of ORPP by the Government Press. To demonstrate the effort incurred, most party registers process are now marked “certified” and had by 6th April,2022 been formally issued with their respective registers. By this date, over 72 parties out of the 82 had received the registers. This is way ahead of legal deadline of submission of certified membership lists by ORPP to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on 9th April, 2022.
Accessibility
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Accessibility Statement
orpp.or.ke
February 14, 2025
Compliance status
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag
for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to