Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission CEO Ezra Chiloba. PHOTO | FILE
By ISAAC ONGIRI
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has missed its target in the first week of its voter registration.
Chief executive Ezra Chiloba said 251,894 people were
registered countrywide in the first week ending February 21 against
their target of 1,037,893 new voters.
Nairobi County topped the list with registration of
23,183 new voters followed by Siaya (15,689), Kiambu (13,637), Kakamega
(13,096) and Kisumu (12,631), says preliminary report released by the
IEBC on Thursday.
The IEBC registered 11,934 new voters in Nakuru, 10,566 in Bungoma, 10,404 in Homa Bay, 9,970 in Meru and 9,039 in Migori.
Mr Chiloba said the electoral body was monitoring voter transfers and the motivation for the movement.
“The commission observed high demand for transfers.
In Nairobi and Kajiado counties, for instance, a total of 19,335
transfer requests were received in the first week ending February 21,
2016,” the report stated.
The IEBC chief raised concerns over the
underutilisation of the biometric voter registration kits adding that
each of the equipment allocated was only registering six people per day.
The commission is targeting to register four million voters in the
month long listing.
The poor turnout has sparked panic in the political
circles, especially within the opposition as they expected to boost
their ranks ahead of the 2017 elections and dim Jubilee’s “tyranny of
numbers”.
The mass voter registration is seen as one of the
main battlegrounds for Kenya’s leading presidential contenders as they
rally their supporters to list in large numbers ahead of the next polls.
The commission said the next mass voter
registration exercise would be conducted in March 2017, five months to
the General Election slated for August 8, 2017.
Currently, about 14.4 million people are registered
voters while those with national identity cards stood at 23.8 million
as at December 2014
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