IEBC declares voter listing a success despite missing target

The electoral commission on Wednesday said it was happy with the voter listing record despite failure to meet the projected target.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Issack Hassan said although the commission may not have reached its 18 million target, the registration was still largely successful and the final report is expected on Thursday.

Mr Hassan once again restated that there would be no any other voter registration session before the March 4 General Election.

“We have legal deadlines to meet. It will not be possible to reopen the registration exercise. We are very happy with what we have seen so far though,” he said.

A spot check by the Nation nationally indicated that other than counties in Central Province and Nairobi, the rest were below target by end of Tuesday.

In Nyanza only Ndhiwa and Kisumu Central constituencies surpassed their targets after registering 102 percent and 120 percent, respectively.

Ndhiwa recorded 61, 329 voters  against a  target  of 60,000, according to the regional election coordinator, Mr Maurice Simiyu.

Homa Bay Town constituency had 34,410 voters, Karachuonyo (66,253), Kasipul (41,145), Rangwe (32,500) and Suba (32,671).

Siaya county registered 312,518 — a record below the IEBC’s target of 382, 135 voters. Bondo constituency recorded 59,617, Alego Usonga (71,628), Gem (55,942), Rarieda (50,377), Ugunja (34,893) and Ugenya 40,061.

In Busia, regional coordinator Japheth Yegon said 251,737 had registered by the expiry of the deadline.

In Kakamega county, 571,153 voters were registered, with Lurambi leading at 61,726 out of the expected 74,699. Navakholo constituency registered 31,665 voters out of the expected 63,946.

Vihiga county registered 202,962 voters, representing 78.53 per cent of the expected voter turnout. Vihiga constituency led in the county with 39,754 voters while Hamisi constituency listed 52,485 voters out of the expected 69, 111.

A total of 254, 658 voters were registered in Bomet county, according to South Rift  regional coordinator Sarah Ogaro.

Sotik  constituency, she said, topped the list with 58,088 followed by Konoin (56,556), Chepalungu (51,584) while  Bomet Central and Bomet East accounted for  47,076  and  41,373 voters, respectively.

In Kericho county, Bureti constituency registered the highest number of voters, at 62, 554. In Kipkelion East constituency where the commission expected to register 50,000 voters, 42,059 had listed.

Sigowet-Soin constituency listed 36, 857 voters against a target of 49, 009. In Kipkelion West, 34, 682 voters were listed against the target of 44, 170. In Ainamoi constituency, 59,729 voters were listed out of an estimated 68, 876 potential voters.

In North Rift, the region recorded 1.2 million voters at the end of the exercise missing the IEBC’s 1.9 million target.

At the Coast, Mombasa county registered 94 per cent of voters and led the South Coast region at the close of business on Tuesday, IEBC coordinator Amina Soud said on Wednesday. Mombasa registered 412,739 voters while Taita Taveta county registered 112,194.

Kwale county registered the least number of voters at only 57 per cent. A total of 173,467 people registered as voters out of the more than 800,000 potential voters, according to Ms Soud.