Authorities in Wundanyi, Taita Taveta County have vowed to arrest all adults without Identity Cards as an immediate measure to ensure that residents acquire IDs after it emerged that the area was responding poorly to the ongoing mass voter registration exercise.
With only two weeks to go before the registration deadline, Taita Sub County has so far registered at a rate of between 130 and 190 people per day which falls way below the target of 383 residents daily for the region to clinch the IEBC set target of a total of 11,480 new voters in 30 days.
Governor John Mruttu expressed disappointed at the rate noting it saddens to see Wundanyi which is the current operating headquarter of the County performing below par in the registration compared to the rest of the sub counties in the County.
“The rest of the Sub Counties are doing well in the exercise but here in Wundanyi the numbers are below the target and if we continue with the pace we may fail to clinch the target. We need to come out and register in large numbers to be able to participate the next general elections,’’ said the Governor.
Area chief Constance Lundi blamed the poor response on tendency by most men and women to focus much on indulging in illicit brews in liquor dens instead of paying attention to matters of importance to social development.
In the light of the above, Lundi promised to launch a door to door crackdown starting this week to apprehend all men and women without IDs.
“We have already declared war on people who have turned 25 years of age and above and have no IDs…we will move door to door, village to village to arrest these people and we will take them to court because it is illegal for adults who have attained the age to 18 and above to stay without Identity Cards for security reasons,” noted the chief adding such offenders will only be released when they have acquired the crucial document.
According to IEBC in the first week Coast region registered a total of 95,681 thousand against the set 163,811 target.
