Polls agency to roll out second phase of voter listing next week

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has announced the second and final voter registration as the country heads to the next General Election.

The exercise that will be undertaken between January 17 and February 6 will target a total of 4.5 million new voters.

In a similar exercise last year targeting six million voters, the commission managed to register a partly 1.5 million voters.

This came even as it emerged that the commission was still under-funded with the current exercise that kicks off in 10 days facing a deficit of Sh5 billion.

Addressing the press in Naivasha at the weekend during the commission retreat, chairman Wafula Chebukati  said they are optimistic that they would get the numbers this time round.

Funding challenges 

He said that they would target colleges and universities which recorded the highest number of voters in the last exercise by supplying the centres with move BVR kits.

“The enhanced voter registration exercise will kick off from January 17, and run to  February 6 and we plan to register more than 4.5 million despite funding challenges,” he said.

Chebukati added that voter registration exercise for diaspora voters would begin from Kenyan Embassies and Consulates from  January 21 to  February 6, 2022.

The exercise which was previously carried out in Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa has been expanded to UK, Canada, US, South Sudan, Qatar and UAE and Germany.

Chebukati noted that a total of 83 parties had applied to be cleared for the elections.