• PAC Chair Opiyo Wandayi asked IEBC to immediately resubmit budget proposals to cover a proper mass voter registration exercise.
• Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo noted that voter registration is an important ingredient in the elections.
Image: DICKENS WASONGA.
A section of ODM MPs now wants IEBC to extend mass voter listing by two months.
Leading the calls by the opposition legislators, the National Assembly's Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Opiyo Wandayi asked IEBC to immediately resubmit budget proposals to cover a proper mass voter registration exercise.
The Ugunja MP asked the commission to ensure registration kits are provided in every polling station.
“The exercise should run for two consecutive months, covering November and December,” Wandayi told the Star on Tuesday.
The legislator said voter listing is the single most important exercise in any electoral calendar and cannot be handled in a casual manner.
He called on the National Assembly to approve the additional IEBC budget in the supplementary estimates.
“Voter listing is the single most important exercise in any electoral calendar and cannot be handled in the casual manner that we have seen of late,” he said.
Wandayi said the government must take it upon itself to mobilize Kenyans to participate in the crucial exercise.
“It cannot be left to political parties and candidates to do the mobilization exclusively,” Wandayi said.
His sentiments were echoed by his Gem counterpart Elisha Odhiambo- Gem MP who noted that voter registration is an important ingredient in the elections.
Odhiambo said that majority of youths in his constituency were yet to register.
“They have petitioned me to appeal for an extension of the registration period. I, therefore, appeal on behalf of Gem constituency for an extension of registration,” he said
Siaya woman rep Dr Christine Ombaka said on Tuesday that an extension of the exercise was necessary.
“In fact voter registration should have started two years ago, giving people ample time to get their IDs and voters card. It is a process,” she said.
They spoke as the party’s Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna urged the IEBC to conduct more civic education on the need to vote, especially amongst young Kenyans.
Sifuna said IEBC must also do more to build the confidence of voters in the electoral process.
“The overwhelming response from many young people I have spoken to is they don’t see the need to register since they feel their votes won’t count,” he said.
In the absence of these assurances, Sifuna said it will be of no use opening up the registration process.
By the close of last week, the commission had only registered 760,000 new votes out of the 4.5 million targeted.
On Monday, ODM leader Raila Odinga, accompanied by the party’s national chairman John Mbadi and deputy party leader Wycliffe Oparanya took a mop-up campaign targeting to improve voter listing in his Nyanza backyard to Kisumu.
Raila said he was worried that his political base was reluctant to aggressively embrace the exercise.
Chairman Wafula Chebukati, while in Mombasa to oversee the joint collaboration between the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Kenya Media Stakeholders Working Group (KMSWG), announced that the 2022 General Elections will be conducted on August 9.
The commission requires Sh40.329 billion to conduct the 2022 general elections, with an additional Sh588 million needed for purposes of procuring items to be used in the Covid-19 prevention protocols.
However, the National Treasury has allocated a budget of Kshs26.34 billion, leaving a deficit of Sh14.577 billion.
The announcement marked the official one-year countdown to the biggest day in Kenyan’s political arena as the citizens will have to exercise their democratic right to vote in their preferred candidates.
It also signaled the current crop of leadership across the six elective positions to start winding up their tour of duty and be ready to face the voters.
“The Commission shall conduct the next General Elections on 9th August 2022 pursuant to Article 136(2)(a) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010,” Chebukati said in Mombasa.
He promised the country the Commission’s commitment towards delivering free, fair, transparent and credible 2022 General Election.
Edited by D Tarus