Parliament wants voter importation criminalised

Parliament wants voter importation criminalized and those culpable punished for electoral offences. In its report to Parliament, the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee wants the Electoral Act to outlaw inducement of voters by political players to influence them to registers as voters in their area of interest.

Those found guilty of that electoral offence will face a six year jail term or a fine of one million shillings.

This may greatly be attributed to the tension and acrimony recently witnessed in Nairobi’s Kariobangi area during the voter registration exercise. Jubilee and CORD supporters clashed allegedly over voter importation and the alleged zoning of the region. Leaders traded accusations with the Jubilee side being accused of ferrying voters from neighboring Kiambu County to register in Nairobi’s Kariobangi area.

If approved, Article 19(a) of the Elections Act will read: “A person who directly or indirectly in person induce or influence any person to register as a voter in a particular electoral area commits the offense of importation of voters.”

But since the Kariobangi clashes, no one has been arrested over the alleged voter importation. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) states that although the law allows eligible Kenyans to register anywhere in the country, mass transfer of eligible voters for the purposes of swaying votes is unacceptable; begging the question, what will be the parameters and the threshold of holding someone responsible for voter importation?

Article 19 of the Election Act, if adopted, will punish anyone culpable of voter importation slapping them with a fine not exceeding one million shillings or imprisonment not exceeding six years or both.

With phase one of the voter registration exercise closed, the committee of Parliament wants the IEBC compelled in future to open the voters’ roll for inspection for three months up from sixty days before the date of a General Election.

Report by Sam Ogina