FORA officials off to UK in hunt for Diaspora votes

FORA officials off to UK in hunt for Diaspora votes

Nairobi, Kenya, August 09, 2012

Three national officials of the Friends of Raila (FORA) lobby group Wednesday night left for London to engage Kenyans resident in the United Kingdom as part of the efforts to mobilise the Diaspora votes.

The FORA officials Hon. Gitobu Imanyara (Deputy Patron), Hassan Omar Hassan (2nd Deputy Chairman) and Eliud Owalo (Secretary), will partner with their FORA UK counterparts to mobilize support for Prime Minister Raila Odinga in his quest for the presidency.

Upon arrival in London, the 3 FORA officials will hold a consultative meeting with the FORA UK Chapter before holding a briefing session with the FORA Patron, Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The FORA Team, led by the Patron, is scheduled to hold a breakfast meeting with FORA UK and ODM UK Chapters on Saturday 11th August 2012 before attending a Diaspora conference later the same day.

FORA’s strategy is to garner at least 70 percent of the 3.4 Million eligible Diaspora votes in favor of Raila Odinga’s presidential candidature.

The Lobby is not only engaging the Diaspora as part of this initiative but also using the fora to determine the issues that Kenyans resident in the Diaspora would like a Raila Odinga-led government to address, which will subsequently, among other issues, inform the Prime Minister’s Presidential campaign Manifesto.

FORA is also currently at an advanced stage in developing a position paper on the appropriate modalities/guidelines that should be used for Diaspora voting in the forthcoming General Election.

The FORA visit to the U.K comes hot on the heels of a similar one by national officials to Beijing, China, two weeks ago in pursuit of votes from Kenyans resident in Asian countries.
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