At stake in this year’s polls is the risk of electing to public office individuals who are in breach of the leadership and integrity tenets as enshrined in Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, those named adversely by statutory agencies or prosecuted for corruption, economic crimes and abuse of office or other criminal offences. The cost of electing such leaders is borne by citizens through broken promises to provide effective public services, like witnessed recently when Kenyans experienced a surge in the cost of living due to rising food and fuel prices in the country. Even worse, the country is losing a third of its budget annually to corruption and caving under a high level of public debt.

To stop such individuals from ascending to public office and transforming the seeds of corruption into trunks of impunity, the National Integrity Alliance (NIA) launched the #RedCardCampaign2022​, blacklisting a total of 25 political aspirants from vying in the August 9th 2022 polls. The list is not exhaustive, given that many of those who have declared their interest in seeking elective positions in the August 9th, 2022 general elections have either been adversely mentioned by investigative institutions, face prosecution or are already convicted. 

The RedCardCampaign is a public integrity drive by the National Integrity Alliance (NIA),a citizen-centred integrity and anti-corruption coalition comprising of Transparency International-Kenya, Mzalendo Trust, Inuka Kenya Ni Sisi, The Kenya Human Rights Commission and The Institute for Social Accountability. The campaign seeks to identify, profile and de-campaign election contestants with serious integrity issues. The first Red Card campaign was conducted in 2017 and proposed that 20 political aspirants be barred from contesting for public office. A good number of the aforementioned candidates, including Ferdinand Waititu - former Kiambu County Governor; Mike Sonko - former Nairobi County Governor; Zakaria Okoth Obado – Migori County Governor and Anne Waiguru -Kirinyaga County Governor, among others who were cleared to contest for public office, have been accused of conducting further infringement to the law. These outcomes have lent credence to our past efforts to block individuals unfit to hold office. It is also statistically proven that individuals with integrity questions continue perpetuating corruption, abuse of office, violation of human rights and other vices after election or re-election. 

In view of the above, We call upon Kenyans to join the RedCard2022 campaign by supporting this petition which seeks to compel;

1. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) NOT to clear the 25 individuals on the Red Card list for elective or appointive office.
2. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) NOT to clear the Red Carded individuals to contest in the 2022 general elections for reasons of failing to meet ethical and moral standards as enshrined in Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya,2010.
3. We call on citizens across the country to adopt the campaign by Red Carding candidates across the political divide who do not meet the integrity threshold.