ELOG demands urgent audit of voter register

A voter verifies his details with a KIEMS Kit during the 2022 General election. [File, Standard]

Elections Observation Group (ELOG) has raised concerns over the credibility of Kenya's voter register, calling for an urgent audit to address persistent errors and anomalies.

In a statement, the election monitoring body stated the need for immediate reforms ahead of the 2027 General Election.

ELOG, which has been observing and monitoring electoral processes in the country since 2010, noted that irregularities in the voter register have been a consistent challenge in past elections.

"This is an important national conversation that is necessary for informing the ongoing electoral reforms and in anticipation of the reconstitution of the IEBC expected to be finalized mid this year," reads the statement.

The organization noted that despite the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) conducting audits and cleaning exercises before each election except for 2022, significant errors have still been detected.

ELOG highlighted its past assessments of the voter register. It noted that in 2012, an audit of the register used for the 2010 referendum found errors in 143,530 records.

Similarly, in 2017, an independent audit uncovered 169,646 duplicate entries.

"It is important to indicate that all these errors were found on the register after the elections had been conducted and further after a professional audit (2017) and cleaning done by the commission before the respective elections," ELOG noted.

Further, ELOG stated that a 2017 audit conducted by KPMG, the firm contracted to review the voter register, estimated that up to 1,037,260 deceased persons were still listed as active voters.

While biometric identification through KIEMS kits has helped address the issue, ELOG pointed out that manual identification methods were still used in some cases.

"It is evident from the above that while due process of registering, compiling, updating, auditing, cleaning and certification of the Register of Voters has been a consistent feature towards safeguarding its integrity, there have been persistent errors and anomalies that are very concerning," noted the statement.

ELOG also stated that the issue of updating the voter register especially in regard to the removal of deceased voters, has been problematic.

ELOG stated that they support the recommendation in the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) report, which calls for a thorough review of the voter register once the new IEBC commission is constituted.

The organization suggests that this process should involve robust public participation and engagement with stakeholders.