IEBC misses registration target in week two over voter apathy

Only over 500,000 Kenyans have been listed as voters in all the 47 counties in the ongoing registration so far.

The latest vote-listing updates by the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) showed the exercise has been dominated by voter apathy, with the commission missing its target to enrol about two million people by the second week.

A statement from the IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba said 310,300 applications were received in the second week compared with 251,894 reported in the first week.

The commission estimated that four million people would register before the exercise is concluded mid this month.

“A total of 562,194 eligible citizens applied for registration as voters by the end of week two of the ongoing mass voter registration (MVR) exercise,” said Mr Chiloba in his statement.

The report indicated that only Kajiado County had met and surpassed the first-week target of 9,046 after registering 16,220 new voters.

It is estimated that the county has 36,183 voters with ID cards as of December 2015 meaning that individuals not expected to register have done so.

CORD STRONGHOLDS

Six counties in Cord strongholds still sit at the top in the competition for numbers even as politicians criss-cross parts of the country mobilising supporters to come out and register as voters.

In Siaya, 44,798 of the 104,205 people who were targeted for registration by the end of the first phase of the exercise have done so, with 29,019 registering in the second week.

In the coastal county of Tana River, 5,959 were listed in the second week out of the anticipated target of 23,078 while in Migori 28,189 out of the targeted 83,982 have so far applied for registration.

In the second week, 19,150 registered in Migori.

Homa Bay County has also managed 32,392 registrations in the second week, far below the county target of 97,688 in the first phase of the exercise.

In Turkana, 10,672 people of the targeted 49,498 have been listed in the second week of the exercise.

MT KENYA REGION

Kirinyaga and Kiambu counties are the only ones in the Mt Kenya region in the top 10, with all Rift Valley counties apart from Turkana missing out.

In Kirinyaga, 8,644 new voters were listed this week, with 13,236 new voters listed in the county so far against a target of 43,199.

Kiambu has registered 28,879 in the second week alone after 13,673 people registered in the first week of the exercise compared with Marsabit County, which has registered 4,650.

“The Commission is still reviewing data on voter transfers from the field. A separate report including observations on the transfers will be shared as soon as it is ready,” said the IEBC chief.

He said the commission was concerned about incidents of insecurity surrounding the registration.

He said: “We urge security agencies to act expeditiously to guarantee the security of IEBC staff and protect potential voters from intimidation.”