Cord says BVR kits used in voter scam

Cord on Thursday claimed biometric voter registration machines used to record details of National Youth Service staff and civil servants in 2014 also registered them as voters without their knowledge.

But the commission’s chief executive Ezra Chiloba said the claims were not new and that Cord had presented them to the commission two weeks ago.

He said if anyone was assuming the role of voter registration without following the law, the police should pick up the matter.

The coalition’s co-principal, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, is now calling for an audit of the electoral commission’s vote listing system.

He was addressing journalists at Capitol Hill in Nairobi.

According to Mr Musyoka, several civil servants and individuals registered for National Youth Service projects in some 69 constituencies around the country are being turned away from registration centres.

He said that the officials were telling them that they had already registered as voters. He produced sworn affidavits to back the Cord claims.

Mr Musyoka alleged the electoral commission and some State agencies were engaging in a high-tech operation to disenfranchise potential voters in what he termed a well-calculated pre-election rigging scheme.

“Today, we have individuals here who have sworn affidavits in which they state that they had never previously registered as voters. We also have those who have been denied a chance to register because they are being told they share same identity cards with other people,” said Mr Musyoka.

On one of the affidavits, Mr Abdulahi Guracha Elema claims he attempted to register at the Ndururuno polling centre in Mathare but was turned away by clerks who said someone else with a different name had registered using his identity card.

“They said as a result I couldn’t be registered,” said Mr Elema.

Ms Mary Gosa, who claims she never registered as a voter in 2012 says she was turned away at the same polling centre. She was told that she even voted in the 2013 elections.
“The last time I registered as a voter was in 2007. I never registered later nor voted in the 2013 elections,” says Ms Gosa in her affidavit.