Mass Voter Registration Day One: Need for More Noise

Politicians across all the political divides traversed the country trying to call on Kenyans to come out in large numbers and register as voters but they might have to make more noise for more Kenyans to hid their call if what was witnessed during day one of voter’s registration is something to go by.

A quick check across the country revealed that only a handful of voters turned up to register as voters and by the end of Close of Business, an average of 40 voters per every registration center had registered across the country.

It was also noted that a big number of those who are turning up for registration is of old age between 40 and above with the young people remaining in the cold. This begs the question on the kind of sensitization that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission used to reach out to them.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC, is targeting to register six million more new voters despite the fact that there are more than nine million ID card holders who are not registered as voters. During the first mass voter registration exercise, IEBC managed to register only 1.5 million new voters, way below its initial target.

The number of uncollected identification cards is also worrying. In Mombasa County for instance, more than 30,000 identification cards are yet to be collected from their respective centers with many saying that this may lock out most of the eligible voters in the country.

In most parts, also, cases of BVR kits failing to function properly were reported. Most of the kits experienced power failure even before the registration kicked off painting a picture of how the next general elections might be if the electoral body will not move to change the current situation.

In Tiaty (Baragoi) voter registration failed to take off after violence broke out due to the ongoing drought that has led to the locals scrambling for the limited resources such as water and food for their livestock.