Leaders intensify voter enlisting campaigns as apathy persists

Political party leaders suspended membership recruitment to focus on voter listing amid poor turnout for the mass registration campaign, which has entered its third week.

This came as Kenyans blamed politicians for lack of morale to register as voters, with some citing failure to implement development projects, fear of recurrence of post-election violence and the greed of leaders once elected as reasons behind voter apathy.

Some opposition leaders also accused the government of employing tricks such as slow issuance of national identity cards and failure of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits to lock people in their political backyards out of the August 8 General Election.

Before flying to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the Jubilee Party membership drive will resume after the voter listing campaign ends on February 14.

“We have decided to take a break and go slow on the recruitment of members to allow our supporters time to register as voters first before the closure of the IEBC registration next month,” said President Kenyatta in Kiambu.

There were fears that Jubilee recruitment was being given preference by aspirants, with some counties in central Kenya recording low numbers of voter registration.

IEBC statistics show that only 19,071 people (51 per cent) registered in Nyeri County in the first week out of the weekly target of 37,650 while Tharaka-Nithi had 15,740 (55 per cent) out of 28,824.

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga also on Saturday suspended the party’s nationwide recruitment to concentrate on voter registration.

On Sunday, Mr Odinga followed up a memo that he had issued on Saturday by convening an ODM leaders’ meeting at Odino, Ken Gen in Nyakach Constituency, where he appeared to lay blame squarely on local governors over low voter registration in his Nyanza stronghold.

“Our national get-out-the-voters must roll out in full swing without any distractions.

"Any leaders or aspirants who go against this directive will be considered to be working directly against the interests of the party,” he said.

GIVE OUT IDs
In Mr Odinga’s home county of Siaya, only 13,171 (43 per cent) people out of the IEBC’s weekly target of 30,986 had registered, while in Nyamira, only 7,517 out of 21,252 enlisted to vote.

Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi appealed to residents of western Kenya to register without asking for handouts.

The former Vice-President also warned Jubilee against turning the President’s directive for a chiefs’ letters to suffice for ID applications into a conduit to recruit foreigners and refugees as voters.

“If an aspirant knows a chief is holding onto IDs, they should take the list and inform the owners to pick them. If chiefs are uncooperative, frogmarch them to deliver IDs to owners”, he said.

In his Vihiga County, only 11,162 people (33 per cent) out of IEBC weekly target of 34,332 had registered in the first week.

The ANC leader said it was suspicious that the Registrar of Persons officers in the region had suddenly been all sent on leave without replacements.

“There is much more to this than normal leave by these officers because those seeking to register for IDs can no longer do so”, he claimed.

Reports by Bernard Namunane, Isaac Ongiri and Justus Ochieng