Confusion over voter registration in Diaspora

With just one day to go before the voter registration exercise begins, there was confusion at the three designated registration centres in the United States with two ambassadors in the US saying the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is yet to give guidelines on how the exercise should proceed.

Kenya’s ambassador to the United States Elkanah Odembo expressed disappointment with IEBC, saying it has failed Kenyans in the Diaspora.

In a terse press statement sent to media houses, Odembo says that neither the relevant government ministries nor the IEBC has given any directions on the administration of the exercise. “I am deeply concerned that by the way things are going, Kenya’s largest Diaspora may end up missing out on this historical event.”

And in New York, Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Macharia Kamau has also told Sunday Nation that IEBC has been silent on the issue. “It will probably start later on but right now, the IEBC has not communicated the modalities to us,” said Mr Kamau.

Meanwhile, a section of the Kenyans is protesting the recent announcement by the IEBC that there will only be three polling stations to serve Kenyans living in the United States in the coming General Election.

In a virtual petition being circulated on the Internet and appealing to Kenyans in the Diaspora to append their signatures, a Minnesota based Diaspora Advocacy Group is urging Kenyans to join it in exerting pressure on the electoral body to rescind its decision “and establish a number of polling stations commensurate with the number of Kenyans....”

IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan identified the embassy in Washington, the UN mission in New York and the consulate in Los Angeles as polling stations.