IEBC: 3 Days To Go As Mass Voter Registration Nears End

NAIROBI,Kenya, Feb, 4 – With just 3 days to go to the end of the second and last mass voter registration exercise the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is way off their target with almost 4 million new voters yet to register.

Is it voter apathy, lack of adequate civic education by an under-funded commission or a combination of all? 

The official campaign season hasn’t officially been declared yet, but judging by the crowds at political rallies, one would be right to conclude that the battle for the house on the hill, has already begun.

However, things on ground are not reflecting on paper and the numbers are not adding up, at least for IEBC which for the second time in months, seems to be failing to reach its targeted projections of what many political pundits call,’virgin voters’

“We are very far away from our national target , lets cross the bridge when we get there….IEBC will go on with the elections, we shall close the exercise and carry on with other activities as per the election operation plan,” said Wafula Chebukati, IEBC Chairperson.

The latest report of the first three weeks of the second voter registration, have given the three major front runners, an indicator of how much civic education they need to engage their constituents in if they wish to avert voter apathy.

“We have to intentionally ensure that they are part of this democratic process for us to even have a conversation post election with the youth,” said Gloria Orwoba, political aspirant.

Political commentators believe that For the front runners, the time left before the registration window, is key.

In Kalonzo Musyoka’s ukambani stronghold, 366,442 new voters were targeted. 296,920 have registered with an intention to vote, with less than 10,000 moving their voting centres within the region.

Deputy President William Ruto’s Rift valley backyard had a target of 757,786 voters, but by the third week of registration, IEBC has recorded 612,881 voters, which includes fresh voters and those seeking to move their polling stations.

ODM leader Raila Odinga’s lake region stronghold has registered 361,681 voters, in the last 3 weeks, despite targeting 421,043 new voters.

IEBC was targeting 4.5 million voters in this second and last attempt to ensure that as many Kenyans are able to exercise their civic duty to vote.

“We’ve seen iebc struggle, with funding even with this election. ((join with)) because of no adequate funding, they are not able to continue with the civic education that is supposed to be continuous,” said  Nerima Wako-Ojiwa , Executive Director – Siasa Place. 

The commission rolled out phase one of the exercise from October 4 to November 5,2021, where 1.52 million eligible Kenyans registered as new voters.

Apathy and lack of national identity (ID) cards, especially among youth and poor civic education were blamed for the low turnout.

“If IEBC had a caravan, that went from county to county with these people, having these people talk to the youth and say guys before you even enter this concert, register there

and i can take a selfie with you. those numbers you are looking at will definitely go up. but putting up tents and having an iebc officer sitting by the shade somewhere, a youthful iebc officer bored to death going on tik tok to spend time because nobody is coming to register that is not the strategy,” said Gloria Orwoba

“They are limited in terms of what they can do and its having massive ripple effect and we are beginning to see that now. we see this apathy, continue to rise, because people dont really understand the importance,” said  Nerima Wako-Ojiwa 

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has reported that it has registered 548,188 new voters in the last two weeks, countrywide in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise.

The electoral agency also stated that they received 130,320 requests for transfer and 989 applications for change of particulars.