The Siasa Open Day

The Siasa Open Day is a platform for discourse and is aimed at creating public awareness on the various stakeholders in the political process within the country and ignite interactions between them and the citizenry on their mandates and what platforms are there for engagement. The uniqueness of the event is the transparency, being able to invite different imperative stakeholders to openly share information, discourse and engage with citizens. The integral part played by politics in the growth of democracy cannot be overstated and needs an informed mind to be able to better discern the best way forward. Due to this, it’s the purpose of the Siasa Open Day to create an enabling platform for information sharing.
The objectives of the Siasa Open Day are:
• Create public awareness on constitutional provisions on political participation.
• Promote the public understanding and interaction on political organizations.
• Synergise the goals and objectives of the political institutions with the aspirations of the citizens

Structure
Kenya has been praised as a forward thinking African nation since the promulgation of her constitution in 2010. For not only the country but for the continent to develop economically, it is researched that politics must move away from being ethnically or religiously based and to issue based politics. Designed to be informative and interactive and help achieve a mutual sharing of information between the citizenry and the political organizations to the greatest extent possible, the Siasa Open Day is constructed around exhibition stands to allow for personalized interaction of the organizations and the public. There will also be a series of panel discussions including the political organizations, civil society, academia and the public so as to help in interrogation of the political ecosystem in the country and the way forward in light of the upcoming elections and the lessons learnt from our past.

Theme
The theme for the Open Day is “Siasa Na Raia,” meaning, politics and the citizen. The Siasa Open Day will want to assess the availability of avenues for which the citizenry, especially the youth, women and PWDs can be able to engage in the political process and how the various organizations are working to mainstream the same. The Nairobi edition is a pilot project with the aim of scaling it throughout the other counties.

Target Audience
• Political Parties
• Kenya Women Parliamentarians (KEWOPA)
• Kenya Young Parliamentarians Association (KYPA)
• IEBC
• Registrar of Political Parties
• Political Liaison Committee
• Political Parties Dispute Tribunal
• Universities
• Women and youth organisations
• General public

Collaboration and Partnership
Holding an effective and efficient Siasa Open Day that will be mutually beneficial for the public and the organizations will require a robust partnership. Siasa Place is seeking partnerships with other likeminded individuals and organizations so as to deepen; broaden and sustain the Siasa Open Day.