IEBC ordered to inform public voter register open for inspection

High Court Judge George Odunga has directed the electoral agency to publish in the media a confirmation that the voter register is open for inspection within 48 hours.

Justice Odunga gave the directions in a case in which Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) director Gladwell Otieno wanted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to be compelled to publish and open up the voter register for public inspection as clustered per polling stations.

Further, the court declined to stop IEBC from distributing a purported register of voters to returning officers for use in the General Election before being subjected to public inspection in a reasonable time frame. The court said that by doing so it will be interfering with the preparation of the General Elections.

The judge declared that in the future, IEBC should ensure that the voters register is open for inspection by members of the public at all times for the purpose of rectifying their identification information.

In addition , judge Odunga declared that within 90 days to the General Election, the register of voters should be open for scrutiny for a period of at least 30 days.

However, since Tuesday the voter register has been open for inspection in all polling stations countrywide.