Mlolongo assistant county commissioner Dennis Ongaga has called on the local leadership to step up voter registration mobilization campaigns in Mavoko constituency.
Ongaga said joint efforts were needed to push the numbers of newly registered persons in the ongoing enhanced voter registration exercise in the constituency.
He retaliated that only eight per cent of the targeted population had been registered in Mavoko despite the fact that only five days were remaining to the registration exercise closure.
“We have gone round our registration centres supervising the voter registration exercise that started on October 4 and ends on November 2. The numbers are low. Mavoko has been given a target of 39, 450 due registered voters, we have registered 3, 045 which amounts to 8.6 per cent," Ongaga said.
Ongaga addressed the press while supervising the exercise at a registration centre at Mlolongo town in Machakos county on Friday.
He added, “We are sending a message to our local leaders, chiefs, assistant chiefs, village elders, nyumba kumi and community policing officials, it is your responsibility to conduct mobilization. Each and every resident of this constituency should turn up in the remaining four days to achieve 100 per cent registration.”
Ongaga said political leaders, clergy, the business community and youth leaders should unite and mobilize residents to register as voters in the ongoing exercise.
“We need to register as per our target, registration will enable you vote in next year’s elections. It’s a constitutional right for citizens to vote,” Ongaga said.
He said about 1,000 national identification cards were lying uncollected at Athi River registrar of persons offices while 555 others hadn’t been collected at Mlolongo divisional headquarters.
“In all our locations, chiefs’ offices, we have dispatched ID cards to centres so that all Kenyans can collect their IDs and register as voters,” Onganga said.
Ongaga warned the constituents against waiting for the last minute for them to throng to voter registration centres.
“As Kenyans, we are used to last minute rash. Let’s stop waiting for the last minute, avoid long queues that may expose you to contracting Covid – 19.”
Mavoko IEBC constituency returning officer Samwel Chacha said majority of those who had attained age 18 and above didn’t want to register as voters.
“Some claim that elected leaders don’t help them in any way. Yesterday I was at Sunrise College in Athi River where we managed to register 200 youths in a day. It however, took us time to convince them to register as voters,” Chacha said in a separate interview at the same location.
He said they were yet to register 36,000 legible voters before the exercise ends next Tuesday.
Chacha said there were 45 registration centres with 26 clerks and six BVR kits spread across the constituency.
