The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has appealed to Murang’a residents to register as voters as the elections draw near.
The acting County Elections manager Faith Mugo has raised concerns saying the county is lagging behind in registration.
Mugo said out if the 20,000 youths who have received their identity cards this year, only about 3,000 have taken the time to register.
Kandara constituency which had 101,592 voters in 2017 is leading after registering 1,480 voters out of the 2,951 people who have received new identity cards.
Kangema constituency is however trailing with only 150 registrations out of a target of 1,462. The constituency had 50,192 voters in the 2017 elections.
About 210 have been registered in Mathioya constituency which had 56,598 voters in the previous elections while 300 have been registered in Kiharu constituency, the largest in the county with 117,688 voters.
Kigumo constituency has registered 180 people with 80,835 voters while Gatanga constituency has registered 165 with 98,884 voters.
“This is disheartening because many other regions are recording almost 100 per cent coverage of their targets,” she said during a journalists training forum organised by Kenya Editors Guild in Murang'a town on Friday.
“We do not know what is happening in the Central region. It could be voter apathy but people should know that the only way they will be able to choose their preferred representatives is by registering as voters,” Mugo added.
She said the commission has been publicising the process without much success as many residents choose to keep off.
She underscored the need for residents to register as voters as early as possible citing the many cases of by-elections that have been conducted in the recent past.
“If such an exercise was conducted, all these unregistered people would be locked out of the process and denied the chance to choose their preferred leader,” Mugo said.
The commission has a registration desk at every registrar of persons’ offices in all constituencies to make it easy for new identity cards holders to register as voters, the official added.
“Sometimes, administrators take the identity cards from the registrar of persons for distribution in the villages. In such a case, one can go to the registrar of persons’ offices or the county IEBC office and will be registered,” she said, adding that the process is free.
Those intending to change their polling stations should visit IEBC offices with their original identity cards and a copy of the card.
Those that have changed their names, especially newlywed women, cannot vote with their new IDs and should visit IEBC offices to have their names changed in the voters' register.
In 2017, senior government officials pitched camp in the county to fight voter apathy that had seen many residents fail to register.
The team that included Transport CS James Macharia, former Devolution PS Irungu Nyakera, former Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri among others went round the county urging residents to support the President to help him secure a re-election.
The county, formerly the bedrock of the Jubilee government's support, has been having a change of heart.
The county is home to some of Deputy President William Ruto's staunch supporters including senator Irungu Kang'ata who wrote to the President claiming the now halted Building Bridges Initiative process did not have the support of residents.
Kang'ata who was removed as the Senate majority Chief Whip has since joined Ruto's camp.
-Edited by SKanyara
