Reasons Why CORD was unable to raise one million signatures for Okoa Kenya Movement

A senior CORD leader has revealed the reasons why the Okoa Kenya Movement was unable to raise 1 million signatures required to kick-start a referendum.

On Tuesday, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared the initiative to amend the constitution dead.

Analysis of data showed that the number of registered voters’ valid signatures was 891,598, short of the one million required. CORD had submitted 1.6 million names.

However, a senior CORD leader revealed why the Okoa Kenya movement collapsed saying the IEBC was right in rejecting the initiative.

The official said the initiative was doomed by major internal defects, glaring collection loopholes, turf wars between the secretariat and experts – and just plain incompetence.

The official said the Okoa Kenya Secretariat – created to spearhead the initiative – failed to put in place strong systems to guarantee quality control.

The CORD official said greed for money among the experts was one of the many reasons that made the Okoa Kenya movement collapse.

“They each wanted to take charge of the money released by CORD. You remember, even clerks stayed for some time without pay. A hungry man is an angry man and the end result was clear,” he said.