The national launch of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) exercise is scheduled to be done in Nakuru town today 4th October, 2021 at the Nakuru Athletic Club (NAC) for 30 days presided over by IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati.
IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said the commission is targeting to register at least 6 million new voters as the country prepares for the August 2022 General Election.
“We urge all eligible Kenyans who have not registered as voters to turn up in large numbers and register,” Chebukati said.
As of 2017, data from the IEBC indicate that the country had a total of 19,611,423 registered voters spread in 40,883 polling stations.
Most loved politicians in the country have taken their time to mobilize the exercise of registration, urging more people, particularly the youth to turn up and register as voters ahead of 2022 General Election.
With full mandate the IEBC is given they are in preparations to undertake a nationwide mass voter registration for the diaspora citizens.
The exercise is mainly targeting kenyans who are in the following countries:
- South Sudan,
- United State of America (USA) ,
- United Kingdom,
- Canada,
- Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
- Uganda,
- Tanzania,
- Rwanda,
- Burundi and
- South Africa
The poll body has however, warned that delay in budgetary support may interfere with the progress of the Pre-Election Cycle which include the voter registration exercise.
Last month, Chebukati warned that insufficient funding could scuttle critical preparatory activities ahead of the election.
IEBC said it was facing financial constraints in undertaking key operations to facilitate a tamper proof poll.
Chebukati indicated the Treasury had only availed Sh26.4 billion leaving the agency with a Sh14.6 billion deficit to attain a fully funded budget of Sh40.9 billion.
“As a commission we are being exposed to the risk to under-funding,” he said.
The commission attributed the estimated budget to a legislative framework governing the electoral process which results in expensive elections.
Requirements under the framework include the capping of maximum registered voters per polling station.
“The law says that you cannot have more than 700 voters in a polling station. We’re now targeting to register more than 6 million voters that will mean we will increase our polling stations from 40,833 to 53,000 plus polling station. This means we shall employ more election officials,” Chebukati said.
He said that the commission has already deployed clerks and biometric voter registration (BVR) kits to all the wards.
He added that each clerk has been given a target on the number of new voters they are expected to have registered by the end of the exercise.
