IEBC falls short of the projected new voter registration
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for the second time has failed to meet its voter registration target, registering just 12 per cent of its 4.5 million targets, with only six days to go in its mass registration drive.
The commission was initially targeting to register 4,480,706 voters in the 21-day campaign ending on February 6.
In a weekly report, Nairobi County registered the highest number of new voters at 49,746 against 356,590 targets followed by Kiambu at 26,544 against 201,340 and Kakamega with 21,533 new voters against a target of 113,890. Other counties in the leading pack include Kilifi with 19,962 new voters, Nakuru (19,686), Mombasa (17,958) and Kisii (19,068).
Cumulatively, the report revealed that the commission had enrolled 1,054 new voters for diaspora citizens as well as received 1,072 and 806 transfers and applications for change of particulars respectively.
The first mass voter registration drives last year achieved only 1,519,294 new voters, increasing the number of Kenyans eligible to vote in 2022 to just over 21 million, up from 19.6 million in 2017.
The exercise took place in institutions of higher learning, Huduma centres countrywide and Diaspora countries, namely United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Qatar, Germany, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Canada, the Commission has today commenced ECVR in UAE at the Kenya Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Kenya Consulate in Dubai.
The second round was launched on January 17 and will run until February 6.
Although it had ruled out a second round of voter registration, IEBC decided to do so after receiving money from the Treasury for the exercise.
The first round, which ran from October 4 to November 2, 2021, only registered 760,000 out of a target of 4.5 million eligible voters. This was only a 17 per cent success rate.
The electoral body also deployed more kits to learning institutions and at least three Biometric Voter Registration kits per ward to hit the target to allow a seamless process.
Chebukati said they will go out of their way to ensure at least 25 million voters participate in the August 9 polls.
Additionally, he announced that they will allow Kenyans who want to transfer polling stations or change their particulars to do so during the period.
The commission failed to reach the six million targets during the first phase of the exercise last year only 1.52 million eligible Kenyans registered as new voters.
Apathy and lack of national identity (ID) cards, especially among the youths and poor civic education were blamed for the low turnout.
