Jubilees Wekesa admits Uganda voter importation ongoing

Former Jubilee Party steering committee co-chairman, Noah Wekesa, has admitted claims that Ugandans are being registered as voters are indeed true.

Speaking during Citizen TV’s Power Breakfast show on Thursday, February 9, Dr Wekesa said concerns by border county Members of Parliament should not be taken lightly and that urgent action need to be taken.

“Being a person from the border, I know Trans Nzoia Women Representative, Janet Nangabo, and Saboti MP, David Wekesa, have raised an issue of Ugandans registering as voters. I want to state here clearly that I come from the border and this is a reality,” Wekesa told the panelists.

The former Cabinet Minister further claimed that Ugandans were being ferried into the country in large numbers using lorries to register as voters in Saboti and Endebess Constituencies.

This comes hot on the heels of late January claims by the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) that the Jubilee government was using the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to interfere with the final phase of the mass voter registration exercise.

CORD leader, Raila Odinga, alleged the intelligence unit has deployed Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to Ethiopia and Uganda to register foreigners as voters, claims that were rubbished by President Uhuru Kenyatta who accused Odinga of plotting to cause chaos.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) refuted the claims saying that no BVR kits were in the hands of strangers.

“We can account for all the BVR kits deployed for the ongoing MVR (mass voter registration), and the personnel operating them,” read a statement by IEBC.

Read Also: NIS registering Ethiopians, Ugandans as voters – Raila

On January 30, Teso South MP, Mary Emaase, was reportedly arrested in Uganda for allegedly being found recruiting Ugandans as voters. She dismissed the claims as propaganda.

Dr Wekesa attributes lower voter listing numbers in Western Kenya to many youth in the region not having national Identification cards, a requisite for voter registration.

Read Also: Politicians warned against importing voters 

“We should not just target listing of voters because a general election is coming. It should be an exercise that we take very seriously throughout the five years making sure that Kenyans get IDs.”