- In diaspora, the IEBC has registered 2,640 new voters in 12 countries at Saturday evening.
- They are in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, South Sudan, USA, UK, UAE, Qatar, Germany and Canada.
Image: IEBC
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission now blames voter apathy and delay in issuance of ID cards for failure to hit voter registration target.
It emerged that the poll’s agency missed its target by a huge margin as the enhanced voter registration exercise ended on Sunday.
This deals a blow to the political bigwigs who were keen to leverage on new young voters to win elections.
Figures obtained by the Star showed that the commission has netted a paltry 906, 211 new voters as at Saturday evening with only one day, Sunday, left to the end of the exercise.
This implies that will be a daunting task for the commission to hit even 1.5 million out of 4.5 new voters targeted in the second phase of the enhanced voter registration exercise.
In diaspora, the IEBC has registered 2,640 new voters in 12 countries as at Saturday evening.
They are in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, South Sudan, USA, UK, UAE, Qatar, Germany and Canada.
“The commission attributes this (low numbers) to voter apathy and the national ID related issues,” IEBC acting CEO Marjan Hussein told the Star on Sunday.
In the first phase of the drive that ran for one month ending November 5, last year, the IEBC listed 1.51 million new voters, translating to about 25.3 per cent of its target of six million voters
Young eligible voters are said to have lost faith in the country’s leadership as successive leaders fail to implement projects that spur growth and create jobs leading to apathy.
There has also been concerns about delays in the issuance of ID cards— a mandatory document for one to get a voter’s card.
Either the youths who apply for the IDs do not collect them or bureaucracies in the application have made youth shun applying for the document.
Northeastern leaders, for instance, have blamed the government for dragging its feet in the issuance of the crucial document to enable the resident get voter’s card.
“Kenyans residing in Garissa and Wajir counties have been denied registration and identification documents which have rendered them stateless,” Garissa Township MP Aden Duale said last year.
The dismal numbers is a blow to the political bigwigs, especially Deputy President William Ruto and ODM chief Raila Odinga.
They have been rallying their backyards to register in their numbers to boost their chances of succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The two could now be forced to go back to the drawing board and reconfigure plans as they battle for numbers in the high stakes August 9 general election.
According registration figures released at the end of the second week of the exercise Nairobi, Kiambu and Mombasa posted the highest numbers.
Nairobi has registered 49,746 new voters, Kiambu has netted 26,544 with Mombasa registering 17,958 voters.
Overall, the 10 counties of Mt Kenya region, including Nakuru, has recorded relatively low numbers than other regions. The counties had registered only 12 per cent of their target at the end of the second week of the exercise.
In DP’s backyard, six counties of Nandi, Baringo, Uasin Gishu, Kericho, Bomet and Elgeyo Marakwet has registered an average of 8.5 per cent of their targets with Nyanza and Coast posting 21 per cent each of their targets.
In 2017, there were 19.61 million voters.
With the closure of the registration, the commission will now embark on cleaning the voters' register with barely six months to the general election.