Cord, Jubilee hunt for 4m new voters

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Issack Hassan during a political parties forum at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Nakuru County on January 12, 2016. IEBC post-election evaluation report indicates that up to four million people in the Cord leader’s strongholds who had attained voting age failed to register. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• On Friday, the IEBC said it will only release one Biometric Voter Registration kit to each registration clerk, adding that the rest would be locked up to ensure no area is disadvantaged.

By ISAAC ONGIRI
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Cord and Jubilee are strategising on how to handle the crucial voter registration starting next month in the scramble for four million new voters.

The registration starts on February 15 and runs for a month.

ODM leader Raila Odinga has urged his supporters to register in large numbers when registration starts.

An Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) post-election evaluation report indicates that up to four million people in the Cord leader’s strongholds who had attained voting age failed to register.

Among those who did register, 1.5 million of the two million no-show voters were from the Cord strongholds, says the report.

Some 21 million people have attained voting age, with 12 million already registered.

The commission estimates that eight million Kenyans with IDs are yet to register.

Statistics from National Registration Bureau indicate that Rift Valley has so far been issued with 460,017 new IDs, followed by Nyanza with 304,965, Western 285,52, Central 222,683, Coast 215,912, Eastern 147,995, Nairobi 126,340 and North Eastern 28,614 since April 2013.

On Friday, the IEBC said it will only release one Biometric Voter Registration kit to each registration clerk, adding that the rest would be locked up to ensure no area is disadvantaged.

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Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba said interviews to hire the clerks will be completed by Monday and training will follow immediately.

“We will publish the names of the 2,878 registration clerks as soon as the recruitment going on in the regions is complete,” he said.

He said although the commission is facing serious financial constraints, it will ensure as many Kenyans as possible are registered as voters.

He urged county governments to make sure as many people as possible were aware of the voter registration.

ODM Director of Elections Junet Mohammed said the party acknowledged that its fate depended on the two voter registration, the one starting next month and next year’s.

“We are mobilising everybody to register beginning February 15. We want all our leaders to go out there and tell our people to take this seriously,” he said.

Jubilee on Friday said it was urging supporters to register, even as it focused on delivering on development promises it made in the last campaign.

“The Opposition may have a lot of time to engage in voter registration but for us, we are busy delivering on our promises — that is our priority,” said Jubilee Alliance Party vice-chairman David Murathe.