The parallel registration drive of recruits by the National Youth Service was ill-timed, the IEBC said yesterday.
The commission said although the exercise was not done with an ill intention, it was conducted at the wrong time, attracting attention from various quarters. Two NYS corporals were arrested by residents in Runda on Monday as they allegedly “registered voters using the IEBC BVR kits”.
While verifiying the BVR kits at Gigiri police station, IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba said the NYS had not communicated they were conducting a parallel listing for the NYS recruits under their empowerment programme. “What worries us is the credibility of the registration process. We have suspended all the NYS activities until we are through with the mass voter registration,” he said.
Chiloba said the suspension will stand until the voter registration is verified and certified. He dismissed claims the kits share data with the IEBC. Chiloba said there is no relationship between the IEBC records and the NYS database.
The government refuted claims the NYS service men were being used to conduct a parallel voter registration.
Gender CS Sicily Kariuki said the biometric registration was adopted by the NYS for the Youth Empowerment Programme beneficiaries. She said the system used for biometric registration of NYS was different from the one used by IEBC.
