Voter register audit to start today as IEBC contracts firm

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has contracted KPMG to audit the voter register.

The audit firm, KPMG, will begin the process on Friday, December 16, 2016 and is set to complete on January 18, 2017.

Upon completion of the audit, IEBC will submit the audit report to the National Assembly for discussions and any directions.

The announcement was made by the poll body on Friday through its Social Media account; twitter.

The voter register audit was one of the demands made by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) during its push for the reformation of the commission.

In May and June, CORD held a series of protests in Nairobi and other towns across the country to push for the removal of the current EBC commissioners and installation of new ones to oversee the 2017 elections.

The protests led to violent confrontations between the police and the CORD supporters who had threatened to storm various IEBC offices and forcefully eject the commissioners.

The opposition, led by Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula, called on protests every Monday to push for the resignation of IEBC commissioners led by chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan.

CORD was also demanding for a fresh audit of the voter register as well as harmonization of the voter registration process.

The pressure from the CORD faction led to the formation of a steering committee drawn from both the opposition and the ruling Jubilee administration.

Upon holding several consultative meeting, IEBC called off the protests saying that there was good will from the part of the government to reform the electoral body.

CORD said the move was aimed at giving dialogue a chance.

The announcement signified a change in tact by the coalition which had insisted they would continue with the protests until IEBC commissioners vacate office.