Pastoralists urge IEBC to review voter transfer rule

A clerk registering a voter at Kilifi Primary School. Pastoralists have urged the electoral body to review its decision to allow voters to change polling stations only at the constituency headquarters. PHOTO | KAZUNGU SAMUEL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Pastoralists in Marsabit County have opposed the electoral body’s decision to allow voters to change polling stations only at the constituency headquarters.

Led by Turbi-Bubisa ward representative Pius Yattani, the residents said the requirement infringes on voters' rights.

Mr Yattani said pastoralists will not be able to change polling stations as they keep moving in search of water and pasture for their livestock.

It is also difficult, he said, for pastoralists in Turbi to go to the constituency headquarters in North Horr, some 300 kilometres away, to change their voting station.

North Horr is the largest constituency in the country by area, measuring 35,210 square kilometres.

“Due to drought, many pastoralists have also moved to [far-off] places, where they have settled and do not intend to return; making it difficult for them to transfer a polling station is a form of rigging,” Mr Yattani said.

Speaking to the Nation by phone, the MCA said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Communication should send registration personnel to wherever the pastoralists are, not only to register them as voters but also to allow them to change polling stations.

“It is our nature to move. Even when you marry you move to another area," he said.