Raila insists NIS registering foreigners as voters

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy CORD leader, Raila Odinga, has reiterated that he has intelligence reports linking the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to the alleged registration of foreigners from Ethiopia and Uganda as voters.

Speaking in Kombani, Matuga in Kwale County, Raila, however, urged his supporters to turn up in large numbers and register as voters in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Raila, who was accompanied with Mombasa Governor, Ali Hassan Joho, Kilifi Governor, Amason Kingi and other Coast ODM leaders also took his voter registration drive to Ukunda in Msambweni, Kwale County before winding up his voter mobilization tour in Likoni Mombasa.

On Tuesday, January 24, the opposition chief alleged that the intelligence unit has deployed Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to Ethiopia and Uganda to register foreigners as voters.

“The agency is also assisting citizens of these neighbouring countries to acquire Kenyan identification documents then helping them cross into Kenya and register as voters.”

“The NIS is also interfering with the voter registration process by having youths whose data were collected through the dubious National Youth Service exercise over the last few years and registering them as voters, without their knowledge.”

The former premier wholly placed blame on NIS for the multiple registrations, shared identity cards among other challenges being experienced in the voter registration exercise.

Raila further alleged that the same tactics were used by the intelligence agency in 2007 and 2013 to deny him victory in the presidential race.

“It is a disgrace and a betrayal of public trust when an institution that is supposed to safeguard the interests of the nation take the lead in undermining those very interests. Interfering with the process through which our country determines its leadership is one of the most serious crimes a public institution and more so an intelligence agency can be involved in.”