Prisoners could vote in 2017 elections

Prisoners could vote in 2017 elections

Prisoners in Kenya could vote in the next General Election if recommendations by the Parliamentary Administration and National Security Committee are adopted.

Speaking while touring Naivasha Maximum Prison, committee acting chair, Grace Kiptui, said several laws should be amended to allow prisoners the right to vote like other Kenyans.

Kiptui says the committee is on a fact-finding mission in all major prisons countrywide and will make several proposals to amend the Kenya Prisons Act to improve the rights of prisoners.

Committee member David Gikaria intimated that members of the parliamentary committee would ensure inmates soon enjoy the right to participate in all future elections.

On his part, Wajir West MP Ahmed Abdikadir Ore said the committee would also propose to have inmates convicted of terrorism jailed separately to tame rising radicalisation in prisons.

This comes as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) plans to kick off the mass voter registration exercise on Monday in the road map to the 2017 General Election.

The registration exercise will commence across the country at designated registration centres in every County Assembly Ward and will run up to March 15, 2016.

The electoral body aims to register 8 million new voters before the polls on August 8th 2017.

The voter registration exercise will be carried out in two phases with the first phase in Kenya set to begin on February 15th, 2016 and end on March 15th, 2016.

In the second phase of the voter registration exercise, voters in the Diaspora will take place between March 10th and 24th, 2017.

 

 

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kenya 2017 prisons prisoners Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Naivasha Maximum Prison Voter Registration Grace Kiptui

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