IDs appeal as voter listing begins

The National Registration Bureau is asking youths with no Identity Cards to apply for the document to enable them take part in voter registration which begins on Monday. (Read: IEBC to start electronic voter registration Nov 19)

Deputy Director Mumia Kasabuli said they had the capacity to process at least 60,000 ID cards per day, meaning that youths who heed their call have a chance of taking part in the March 4, 2013 General Election.

The registration bureau receives a maximum of 20,000 applications daily, which are quickly processed and returned to the applicants, Mr Kasabuli said.

He added that contrary to claims that more than two million risked being locked out of the elections for lack of the document, only 322,000 ID cards remain uncollected.

The official said that at their production centres they were currently processing 150,000 new applications, all of which will be completed and the documents sent back to the applicants by next week.

“Therefore any Kenyan who has reached the age of 18 must come forward and get the important document to enable them vote,” he said.

“They should also take advantage of our mobile registration facilities and our more than 600 offices in all the 292 districts across the country to apply for the document.”

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission says the registration will run for exactly one month after which voters will access the register for verification.

The commission targets to register around 18 million voters.

The exercise had initially been scheduled to begin from November 12 to December 11, but it was delayed to allow the IEBC to train clerks on the use of the biometric voter registration kits.

The kits had been expected on October 25 but arrived five days late, hence the change of the registration timetable. The training of the 30,000 registration clerks has now been completed.

The commission says the kits have already been dispatched to the various registration centres countrywide.

Mr Kasabuli said they would work closely with the Provincial Administration and faith-based institutions to not only encourage youths to apply for the IDs, but also ask those who have failed to collect theirs to do so.

The deputy director said they had scaled up their operations, including working on Saturdays with his officers working in shifts, to enable new applicants get the documents as the voter listing exercise continues.

The voter registration begins on Monday.

For those in Nairobi, he said, they had cut down the number of days required to process one card from 16 to five. He also said special arrangements had been made to reduce the time it takes to process IDs for those in arid and semi-arid areas as well as other rural areas.

“Our field managers are under strict instructions to ensure that wherever they are, they ship the applications so that we receive them here in Nairobi within two days to enable us start their processing immediately.”

He maintained that those with waiting cards will not be allowed to register as the cards are not identification documents.