IEBC on the spot for silently kicking off 2017 voter registration

By Felix Olick

Nairobi, Kenya: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) kicked up a storm after officials announced they had already rolled out the voter registration exercise.

MPs questioned the commission for kicking off the exercise “in silence”, raising credibility issues regarding the process.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, IEBC acting Chief Executive Officer Betty Nyabuto opened the lid, saying they began the exercise on April 15.

“The strategy of the commission is to carry out voter registration continuously at the ward level as opposed to the current strategy of undertaking registration at the constituency level which has proved to be inefficient and inconveniencing to potential voters,” Ms Nyabuto said Tuesday.

Commission officials led by Vice Chairperson Lilian Mahiri-Zaja were appearing before the parliamentary committee to present their budget estimates for the next financial year 2014/2015.

But the lawmakers took the commissioners head-on saying they had started creating room for suspicion ahead of the 2017 polls.

Ruaraka MP Tom Kajwang’ said Kenyans would imagine that plans to rig the next election are afoot and that the registration is being done “for a particular presidential candidate”.

Financial hitch

“You are setting yourself up for suspicion. Kenyans will start saying you are doing the registration for some people and this will stick till the next election,” cautioned Kajwang’.

MPs from both sides of the political divide admitted that they are not aware of the exercise and criticised IEBC for failure to convene a press conference to make the announcement.

“What members find curious is that you are doing things quietly. And I think you can see we are dissatisfied,” noted committee Chairman Samuel Chepkonga.

However, the commission maintained that they are broke and do not have finances to publicise the exercise. Ms Mahiri-Zaja said financial constraints had also hindered the commission from cascading the process to the ward level.

She, however, assured the MPs that they are not carrying out registration in constituencies where there is likely to be a by-election including Nairobi County.

“I have to point out that this is not fresh registration,” pointed out the IEBC vice chairperson. “We have also ringfenced areas where there is likely to be a by-election as per the law including Nairobi.”

According to their budget estimates, the commission is requesting for Sh4.4 billion in recurrent vote and Sh1.413 billion in development vote.

However, only Sh3.3 billion and Sh100 million as the ceiling was allocated for recurrent and development respectively.