Mount Kenya Unity Forum Leaders Martha Karua and Moses Kuria addressing the media at Karen Hospital. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]
Mount Kenya Unity Forum yesterday said the group will work hard to add three million voters from the region.
According to the Forum's spokesperson Martha Karua, the region currently boasts of seven million voters and they are planning to increasing this number to 10 million by the end of the month when the voter registration exercise closes.
The Narc-Kenya party leader made the remarks at Karen Hospital where Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria is recovering.
On the voter registration by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) which kicked off yesterday for one month, the two leaders said they also intend to reach out to the diaspora voters.
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"We note that today (yesterday) marks the launch of registration of voters by IEBC across the country. Every vote counts and it’s the right and civic duty of every Kenyan to exercise their democratic right," said Karua.
She added: "As members of the Mount Kenya Unity Forum, we call upon all eligible Kenyans within Mount Kenya catchment and diaspora to come forward and register."
At the same time, Karua asked the Ministry of Interior to facilitate eligible voters to have the necessary documents needed for Kenyans to register as voters.
Mount Kenya Unity Forum leaders, from left, Humphrey Njuguna, Jacob Gitau, Moses Kuria and Martha Karua. [Boniface Okendo,Standard]
She said just as the electoral commission is targeting to register six million new voters, the region is aiming to have half of those voters.
"We are calling this ‘Project 7 to 10’. Let us claim our share of the increased numbers," said Ms Karua, who asked the Government to come out clear and tell Kenyans what documents can be used for registration, whether Huduma Namba or IDs.
Kuria, who thanked Kenyans for praying and wishing him a quick recovery said as a region, they will take the issue of voting very seriously because it has a sizeable and significant voting block of seven million voters.
"According to IEBC breakdown on Friday, our region and diaspora combined was assigned three million extra voters potential and currently we have seven million voters. We are here to look for ways and mechanisms of increasing that by three million more voters to hit 10 million voters by end of this month to have a voter strength of 10 million," the MP said.
He said to reach the three million target, they are aiming for 162,000 from Meru County, Embu (71,000), Nyandarua (77,000), Kirinyaga (129,000), Murang’a (218,000), Tharaka Nithi (498,000 to 500,000), Nyeri (105,000), and Kiambu (438,000).
Others are Laikipia (91,000) and Nakuru (300,000) Mount Kenya diaspora in Kajiado County (100,000), Nairobi (417,000) and 0.5 million voters from all other places within Kenya where members from the region live.
"We plan to register up to 5,000 volunteers from all our political parties in these regions, and each will have a target of 60 voters to register," added Kuria.
