The struggle for prisoners’ voting rights: Analysing the constitutional right to dignity and sovereignty in Kenya
Posted: 18 November, 2024 Filed under: Uday Makokha Keya | Tags: Bill of Rights, democracy, dignity, electoral justice system, equity, fundamental freedoms, general elections, human rights, IEBC, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Kenya, principles of governance, prisoner`s right to vote, right to dignity, right to vote, Sovereignty, voting rights Leave a comment
Author: Uday Makokha Keya
Third-year law student, Kabarak University
The values on sovereignty of the people, asserted in the constitution of Kenya, imposes on the state the duty to protect, promote and fulfil citizen`s right to elect their representatives as a way of exercising their sovereignty. This right should therefore be achieved through guaranteeing citizens the right to register as voters and, consequently, to elect their leaders. The constitution provides that, every person has a right without unreasonable restriction to be registered as a voter.[1] Therefore, any limitation to the right to vote, has to be necessary,[2] and in accordance to the law.[3] The case of Kituo Cha Sharia V IEBC & 2 Others, affirmed prisoner`s right to vote and elect their representatives linking their right to vote to their dignity, and the exercise of their sovereignty.[4] To guarantee the right to vote to prisoners, they should have equally been provided with the right to register as voters and, to consequently vote in every election cycles.
Prisoners too have a right to determine the government of their choice
Posted: 6 February, 2013 Filed under: William Aseka | Tags: constitution, disenfranchisement, elections, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Kenya, prisoners, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, voting 10 Comments
Author: William Aseka
Program Assistant (Human Rights Advocacy for Children with Disabilities), Governance Consulting
One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence governmental decision-making is through voting. Voting is a formal expression of preference for a candidate for office or for a proposed resolution of an issue. Voting generally takes place in the context of a large-scale national or regional election, however, local and small-scale community elections can be just as critical to individual participation in government.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, recognizes the integral role that transparent and open elections play in ensuring the fundamental right to participatory government. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly stipulates under Article 21:
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his/her country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot or by equivalent free voting procedures. (Emphasis mine)
In fact just five years after the end of the reign of the apartheid government of South Africa, the country’s constitutional court addressed one of the most profound issues facing the new democracy. The case involved a challenge to the denial of voting rights for citizens incarcerated in South African prisons and raised the fundamental issue of the meaning of democracy, one that was particularly poignant in a society in which such questions had been restricted from public debate. In his written decision for the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Justice Albie Sachs declared, “Rights may not be limited without justification and legislation dealing with the franchise must be interpreted in favor of enfranchisement rather than disenfranchisement.”
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