*NAESI Unveils Proposed Nationwide Structure Ahead of 2027 Elections

By Maurice Momanyi

The National Elections Support Initiative (NAESI) has proposed a multi-tier structure that will establish its operations from the national level to villages across Kenya as part of efforts to strengthen voter education, peaceful elections and citizen participation.
The proposed structure, contained in NAESI’s organisational framework, will comprise national, regional, county, sub-county, ward and village-level structures.
At the national level, NAESI will establish its headquarters in Nairobi, which will serve as the supreme policy and coordination organ.
The National General Assembly, bringing together all NAESI partners, will meet annually or whenever necessary to approve the organisation’s strategic plan, audit reports and other major engagements.
A National Governing Team of between seven and 11 members is also proposed. The team will include a coordinator, legal and finance representatives and elections experts, with responsibility for safeguarding NAESI’s non-partisan character.
The day-to-day operations will be handled by a National Executive Team headed by the National Coordinator. Other areas of responsibility will include programmes, peace coordination, operations and devolution, voter education, election observation, legal and justice matters, youth, women, persons with disabilities and minorities, media and communications, resource mobilisation, research and ICT.
A professional National Secretariat will support the leadership through departments covering programmes, finance and administration, human resources, partnerships, monitoring and evaluation, logistics, legal aid and a call centre.
Among its national responsibilities will be policy development, liaison with stakeholders, recruitment of national teams, development of training curricula, donor engagement, media strategy and serving as the apex level for dispute resolution.
Eight regional chapters proposed
At the regional level, NAESI proposes eight chapters broadly aligned with Kenya’s former provincial administrative regions.
The proposed regions are Nairobi, Central, Coast, Eastern, North Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western. The structure is intended to work closely with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) regional clusters for ease of coordination.
Each region will have a nine-member Regional Executive Committee, headed by a Regional Coordinator and incorporating representatives responsible for youth, women, persons with disabilities and other coordination functions.
The regional structures will supervise county operations, conduct regional training programmes, coordinate deployment of election observers and organise stakeholder forums.
They will also escalate emerging electoral and other issues to the national level.
Counties to form operational backbone
The 47 counties will constitute the operational backbone of NAESI’s activities.
Each county will have a County Executive Committee of up to 11 members, including the County Coordinator, Assistant Coordinator, youth and women representatives, a PWD representative, regional legal representation and a voter education lead.
County operations will be supported by a secretariat comprising coordinators and thematic leaders, as well as administrative and finance personnel.
The county chapters will be responsible for liaising with IEBC at county level, recruiting and vetting ward leaders, conducting voter education, coordinating sub-county activities, managing reports and facilitating community dialogues.
Structures to reach grassroots
At the sub-county level, NAESI proposes seven-member executive committees aligned with IEBC constituency and sub-county boundaries.
Their responsibilities will include supervising ward chapters, supporting election logistics, training ward-level observers and establishing conflict early-warning mechanisms.
The ward level has been identified as a critical point for grassroots mobilisation and voter and civic education.
Each ward coordination committee will comprise seven members, including peace coordinators, mobilisers, youth and women representatives and village elders.
The ward structures will conduct door-to-door voter and civic education, organise community meetings and barazas, recruit village volunteers, identify polling-station observers and report suspected electoral malpractices.
At the village level, described in the proposal as the foundation of the structure, NAESI will establish village or polling-station clusters.
Each village committee will have five members, including coordinators, peace mobilisers and representatives of women and youth.
The village structures will largely rely on volunteers, with between 10 and 30 volunteers proposed for each village.
Their responsibilities will include disseminating information to citizens and voters, supporting peace campaigns and community dialogues, serving as community peace monitors and mobilising residents for voter and civic education.
The proposed structure is designed to create a continuous chain of coordination from the national headquarters to the grassroots, enabling NAESI partners to undertake voter education, election observation, peacebuilding and civic engagement across the country.
The initiative says the grassroots structures will also provide channels through which electoral concerns and community-level information can be escalated to higher levels for appropriate action.