IEBC launches voter listing after pressure

The electoral commission Wednesday bowed to pressure and launched a countrywide registration of voters a day after it was accused of “secretly” listing them.

Though the exercise was open to the public from April 15, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) only made official announcement about it on Wednesday following an outcry over “secret” voter registration around the country.

“Due to constrained resources, the commission has flagged off continuous voter registration at all the IEBC constituency offices across the country,” read a statement from the commission.

On Tuesday, its vice-chairperson Mahiri Zaja revealed that voter registration has been going on for over a month, but claimed it had no money for creating awareness on the exercise.

“We don’t even have funding so we said we’ll do it quietly,” Ms Zaja told the Justice and Legal Affairs committee at Parliament. She also told the committee that the turnout has been dismal because people are not aware of the listing.

The commission Wednesday announced that voter registration was ongoing in all its 290 constituency offices.

ELIGIBLE VOTERS

“The commission is hereby calling upon all eligible Kenyans who have attained the age of 18 years and above and are not registered as voters to visit any of the IEBC constituency offices across the country to register,” said a statement by Communications and Corporate Affairs Manager Tabitha Mutemi.

She clarified that only individuals validly registered as Kenyans and with genuine passports or Identity Cards would be allowed to participate.

More than 14 million out of 18 million Kenyans eligible for registration were listed in the last elections.