BVR kits hitch delays voter registration exercise

What you need to know:

  • Voter registration centres remained deserted on Monday morning as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) staff were yet to report for duty.
  • Mandera East Constituency Elections Coordinator Abdikadir Abdullahi told the Nation.co.ke that they were still waiting for the regional technical officer to arrive in the sub-county to configure the kits.

Mass voter registration exercise in Mandera was delayed on its first day after it emerged that the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits had not been configured.

Voter registration centres remained deserted on Monday morning as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) staff were yet to report for duty.

Mandera East Constituency Elections Coordinator Abdikadir Abdullahi told the Nation.co.ke that they were still waiting for the regional technical officer to arrive in the sub-county to configure the kits.

“We are still waiting for the regional technical officer to arrive in Mandera to configure the BVRs for us to kick off the exercise,” Mandera East Constituency Elections Coordinator Abdikadir Abdullahi said.

He said the officer was held up in Mandera West yet he was needed to configure kits for five constituencies in the county.

“We have BVR kits for Lafey constituency still lying here in Mandera town. Until they are configured, nothing can happen in the constituency,” he said.

He said every ward is scheduled to receive two BVR kits to be used in the exercise.

“I have five wards in Mandera East and we have to configure 10 kits and others for emergency before we roll out the exercise,” he said.

EXTEND EXERCISE

Mr Abdullahi said the head office shall decide whether to extend registration exercise for Mandera following the delays.

This happened even as locals raised concerns that foreigners from Somalia and Ethiopia were likely to be enlisted as voters in the exercise.

However, Mr Abdullahi said an Identification card and a valid Kenyan passport are the only qualifications for registration.

There have been claims that non Kenyans have in the past acquired IDs fraudulently with the help of politicians.

Thirty wards in Mandera are expected to be affected by the hiccup. Mandera County comprises of Mandera West, Mandera South, Mandera North, Lafey, Mandera East and Banisa constituencies.

Meanwhile, Mandera county assembly minority leader Abdirahman Haji raised concern over the decision by IEBC to allocate two BVR kits per ward.

“We cannot have two BVRs serving a ward considering the size and the number of unregistered eligible voters to be registered,” said Mr Haji.

The exercise is expected to end on March 15 as the IEBC targets to register 4 million new voters.