Kenya's High Court has
suspended an order stopping the International Foundation for Electoral
Systems (IFES) from offering assistance to the electoral agency (IEBC)
as it prepares for 2017 General Election.
Mr Justice George Odunga issued the order on Friday after activist Okiya Omtatah sued the NGO Coordination Board.
Claims that IFES is not registered as an NGO, Mr Omtatah argued, were unfounded.
Denied claims
He said IFES was registered as a Trust under the Lands ministry and denied claims that the NGO is a company.
Judge Odunga consequently suspended the NGO board order and agreed to certify the matter as urgent.
NGO Coordination
Board Executive Director Fazul Mahamed on December 19 stopped IFES’s $20
million elections programme, saying the entity was operating illegally.
Civic education
The NGOs board
said that the employees of IFES had not been registered by them nor had
they obtained a work permit from the Principal Immigration Officer, who
was also copied in the letter.
Mr Fazul's order
came a week after President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed foreigners were
pumping in billions of money into Kenya “in the guise of civic
education”, to influence regime change.
IFES has funded
NGOs to participate in the electoral process by voter registration,
civic education, capacity building, and advocacy for women and youth
participation, consensus building and early conflict response.
USAid, the funder of IFES, has denied Mr Fazul’s and President Kenyatta’s claims.
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