The Coordinator of a non-government organisation (NGO), Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), Crispin Kugiza Kaheru, has tendered in his resignation letter after serving for nine years.
According to the letter dated September 11, 2019, addressed to the chairperson of CCEDU, Dr. Miria R.K. Matembe, Kaheru’s resignation takes effect from October 11, 2019 at 5:30pm (17:30hours)
Assuming that role, at the age of 26, Kaheru, a journalist by profession, made a personal commitment to serve in this position for a maximum of nine years. Kaheru has made great strides in ensuring that CCEDU recruits and retains enthusiastic professional staff, who are capable of delivering on the Coalition’s mandate.
“CCEDU’s staff profile has grown from two volunteers in 2009 to 15 full-time staff in 2019. CCEDU has over the years striven to build the most talented and dedicated team for the Secretariat. Besides the Secretariat, CCEDU has built a robust human resource pool in every district of Uganda,” reads in part of the letter.
Kaheru said from 16 founding member organisations in 2009, CCEDU’s institutional membership has since grown to 972 reputable organisations. In addition, CCEDU’s individual members have increased from 302 in 2009 to over 25,018 in 2019. I have had the honour of overseeing the growth of the ‘CCEDU fans base’ from 1,250 in 2009 to 4,980,201 Ugandans in 2019.
CCEDU has since carved out a niche in advocacy for electoral reforms, conducting voter mobilization campaigns and monitoring electoral processes. CCEDU has coordinated critical nationwide citizen-centered electoral reform advocacy efforts as well as superintending over non-conventional voter-mobilisation campaigns such as, Honour Your Vote, Votability and Topowa.
“I am honored to have worked with a civic group that leverages the purely voluntary spirit of hundreds of thousands of its members across the country. Members have faithfully contributed their time, intellectual and financial capital towards CCEDU’s campaigns without necessarily expecting to be financially rewarded. This spirit of volunteerism of the membership is what has given me the strength and courage to make extraordinary sacrifices that I would ordinarily not have made,” he wrote.
CCEDU was on July 4, 2018 suspended from conducting election-related activities over allegations that the organisation has been partisan in the way it has been conducting its activities, breaching electoral observation guidelines for benefits of stake holder in the electoral process.
