128,000 Double Registration Witnessed in Week One of Mass Voter Registration

128,926 people have either registered twice or share an Identification numbers in the ongoing mass voter registration according to the report released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC, led by the newly appointed chairman, Wafula Chebukati.

Mr. Chebukati said that the incidences were innocent mistakes on the part of the commission and added that the errors might have occurred as a result of entry errors during registration, shared Identity cards and that some of the voters were registering twice purposely with the hope that they will vote twice during the August 2017 General Elections that are just less that are just months away.

The admission of the electoral body comes days after the opposition co-principal Steven Kalonzo Musyoka claimed that he was sharing an identification number with someone else. Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, (CORD), leader Raila Odinga also claimed that he was sharing Identification number with more than two people. The opposition has claimed that the move to issue similar identification is part of the wider scheme of the Jubilee administration to rig the upcoming general elections set to be held in the month of August and are calling for a thorough audit of the national register.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has said that it has registered 825,145 voters across the country during the first seven days. The number is way below the weekly target of 1.4 million voters. Samburu County has recorded the lowest voter registration turnout at 18 percent while Kajiado County is the highest with a voter turnout of 200 percent. Garissa County has witnessed 128 percent voter registration turnout while Kiambu has realized 105 percent of the turnout.

The electoral body is targeting to register a total of 6 million new voters at the end of the one month voter registration exercise. To realize this, the commission had purposed to register 200,000 voters per day but it seemed to be off target though there is hope that more Kenyans will turn up at the last minute.