•The county assembly has about 140 employees.
•The workers are expected to report back on February 6, 2022.
Image: FAITH MATETE
Kisumu County assembly employees have been given ten days off to go back to their rural areas to mobilise unregistered residents to enlist as voters.
The essential service providers were exempted from the two-week leave.
The county assembly has about 140 staff.
Assembly Speaker Elisha Oraro said that only a few people had turned up to register as voters.
Oraro noted that it is a civic duty of all Kenyans to register as voters to enable them to exercise their democratic rights during elections.
"I wish to urge everybody who has not yet done so to ensure he/she is not left behind," he said.
He urged each member to at least ensure two unregistered people enlist as voters each day. He also encouraged those who do not have Identification Cards to apply for the documents and register as voters.
The speaker noted that they held a consultative meeting with the management and staff of the assembly, and as part of their deliberations, they had underscored the importance of the ongoing voter registration.
"It is in light of this that today, Thursday, January 27, 2022. I have released all the Assembly staff, with exception of essential service providers, to spearhead voter registration campaigns in their villages," he said.
The workers are expected to report back on February 6, 2022.
The move comes days after the Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyong'o gave all the county workers two weeks off to enable them to mobilise their families and friends to register as voters.
Nyong'o asked the workers to retreat to their respective wards and villages to spearhead the voter listing campaigns.
He spoke when he met all the county employees on Monday morning amid concerns that the region was lagging in the number of registered voters.
The governor said the county employees should coordinate with the ward administrators to ensure more people register as voters.
He noted that they should divide themselves within the seven constituencies (35 wards) and ensure they report to the ward administrators and have morning meetings before undertaking the mobilisations.
“We must all come out and mobilise people to register as voters and support our own who is contesting for the presidency,” he said.
The governor also directed his officers to ensure that those who have attained the age of 18 apply for the IDs and register before the deadline.
“By the end of this week, we should see a better result from what we have now,” he said.
The governor noted that some 5,529 people had registered against a target of 130,106 since the exercise began a week ago.