Crispin Kaheru resigns as CCEDU national coordinator

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Coordinator of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy (CCEDU) Crispin Kaheru has resigned.

Kaheru in a three paged resignation letter dated September 11th, 2019 addressed to the chairperson CCEDU Board Dr Miria R.K Matembe says that his resignation takes effect on October 11th this year.

Kaheru states in the letter that he is quitting the coalition after exactly nine years having fulfilled his personal goals which he pledged while joining the electoral advocacy group.

Kaheru lists three broad areas of achievements under his tenure including developing human capital in which the organization’s professional staff number attached to the secretariat grew from two in 2009 to 15 full-time staff in 2019. He also says he is leaving behind a team of 9,645 trained, domestic election observers spread across the country.

“CCEDU has built a robust human resource pool in every district of Uganda which has kept CCEDU on top of political and electoral developments in the country every day” he states in the letter.

The board is yet to respond to Kaheru’s resignation. The third achievement he cites in the letter is programmes and partnership for effective advocacy for electoral reforms, conducting voter mobilization campaigns and monitoring electoral processes.

“During my tenure, I have had the honour of coordinating critical nationwide citizen-centred electoral advocacy efforts as well as superintending over non-conventional voter mobilization campaigns such as Honour Your vote, Votability and Topowa” he says adding that these campaigns positively influenced millions of Ugandans to participate in the 2016 General elections.

According to Kaheru, he led election monitoring missions for domestic and international elections on behalf of CCEDU, represented CCEDU in the Uganda National Dialogue process since 2016 and worked with a civic group that leverages the voluntary spirit of hundreds of thousands of its members across the country.

Last year, the Electoral Commission suspended CCEDU from observing elections in Uganda citing partisan practices in its work halting dissemination of electoral messages at a critical time for bye-elections and elections in new constituencies across the country.

Electoral Commission Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama Mugyenyi, said in July CCEDU shunned the women council election calling it a sham despite the big turn up. He also accused CCEDU officials of going to the media and discrediting the electoral processes.

The suspension was later lifted after series of discussions and negotiations.

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