IEBC suffers major setback as voter registration targets missed by huge margins

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is pondering over new ways of increasing the voter registration turn out to help it reach its target.

Addressing the press on Thursday, IEBC commissioner Thomas Letangule said, the commission is facing serious challenges in sensitizing people to turn up and register as voters due to financial constraints, urging legislators to promote the exercise in their functions at the grassroots.

Letangule said that it has only registered 868,000 voters, which translates to 25 per cent, a dismal number compared to their target of 4 million voters.

The commissioner attributed the massive shortfall in the voter registration target to budgetary constraints instituted by a move by the National Treasury to slash its budget from Ksh 2 billion to Ksh 500 million limiting its ability to carry out extensive sensitization campaigns.

“Funding is an issue in this process. We were not able to reach out to our stakeholders and those who would have been able to rally people to vote because we had not financial ability to do so.”

He urged Members of Parliament and Members of the County Assemblies to rally their constituents, during their political meetings, to register as voters order to up the numbers and ensure an inclusive 2017 elections.

“I really don’t know why people with IDs are not coming to register. We are asking politicians to use their powers when they go out to the field and tell their people to come out and register as voters,” pleased Letangule.

IEBC is also contemplating carrying out the exercise alongside registration of persons with Letangule saying currently, the commission clerks register an average of one person a day, something he says is discouraging.

Despite the unsatisfactory turn out, however, the commission has insisted that it will not extend the one-month registration process which ends on March 15th, 2016.

In the figures released by IEBC, Kajiado County is ranked top with 16,303 voters registered surpassing the commission’s target of 13,569 voters by the third week. It is followed closely by Marsabit which has 9,510 registered voters against a projected figure of 18,541 voters while Siaya County is third with 38,994 registered voters against a target of 78,153 voters.

Narok County is ranked fourth for listing 14,177 voters against IEBC’S target of 29,340 while Migori County registered 28,972 voters against the target of 62,986.

On the bottom half, Vihiga County has registered 11,677 voters against the target of 79,233, Taita Taveta posted 5,695 against a target of 35,792 voters, while Kilifi County registered 19,038 voters against the target of 117,190 voters.

Embu County has registered 10,002 voters against a projection of 60,380 while Nairobi County has registered 75,972 voters against the target of 405,298.

Report by Sam Ogina