IEBC wants Sh30 billion for 2017 elections

NAIROBI: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) wants to spend a staggering Sh30 billion on the 2017 General Election. Further, the commission says it will need Sh6 billion more to prepare for the 2022 General Election.

In its 2016-2022 Strategic Plan, the commission says between now and next year, it will spend Sh7.1 billion on 15 projects, including laying ground for an effective legal framework for the management of the electoral process and an enabling environment for effective liaison with political parties.

It will also spend the money on voter education, registration of voters and ICT integrated in electoral processes and management. Wednesday, MPs approved Sh3.1 billion for IEBC in a supplementary budget.

According to the plan, the commission will also use part of the Sh7.1 billion this year for a positive corporate image, risk management in commission operations, improving of structures, procurement, warehousing and logistics and research.

Between 2016 and 2017, the commission plans to spend Sh8.8 billion on the same programmes while it intends to spend Sh14.3 billion between 2017 and 2018.

The plans are contained in a document prepared by the commission to guide them ahead of the elections. The monies, however, have to be approved by Parliament.

The commission plans to register 11.4 million more voters ahead of the next polls.

The document cites the Kenya Population and Household Census, which says 25.7 million Kenyans will be over the age of 18 in 2016.

"This implies that IEBC will register an additional 6.2 million voters if a target of 80 per cent of the total eligible population is used. However, this Strategic Plan seeks to register 100 per cent of eligible citizens. This makes the total target population for registration before the 2017 General Election 11.4 million. Attaining this target could be ambitious but is attainable; and calls for effective strategies," says the document.

The commission wants to develop a model plan for the management of the National Tallying Centre and adjust the time threshold for submission of results to the centre.

"The technical hitches in the electronic voter identification devices system require to be addressed and inconsistencies between the data in the system and that in the manual register need to be reconciled before the polls," the document reads in part.

The plan is set to be launched on June 17. It comes at a time when the Opposition is demanding the restructuring of the commission.

It proposes that IEBC have seven commissioners who will be chosen by the political parties in order of their numerical strength in Parliament. Among the proposals is that the system of voter identification be electronic and that only electronically identified persons be allowed to vote.