IEBC: We have updated 2017 register, added 67,462 new voters

IEBC personnel confirming voter records at Gatitu Polling Center in Nyeri County. May 13, 2017. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has added 67,462 new voters to the 2017 voter register.

The commission told The Standard that these new voters were added following the electoral agency’s roll-out of continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise in October 2018.

“Pursuant to its constitutional mandate as articulated by Article 88 (4), the Commission launched and has been conducting continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise since 15th October 2018. The Commission has since the launch of the CVR, updated and certified the Register of Voters as at 31st December 2019 to be 19,678, 885,” Tabitha Mutemi, the commissions director of communication said.

Mutemi said this is an addition of 67,462 new voters to the 2017 register of 19,611,423.

 “The Commission has also updated the register of voters with an additional 55,535 voters as at June 30, 2020, and 54,203 as at June 30, 2021,” she said.

This comes after the commission announced the window for mass voter listing, setting the stage for the race for the numbers that will determine who wins next year’s elections.

Chairperson Wafula Chebukati earlier in the week said the commission will begin a mass voter registration drive on October 4.

The 30-day exercise will provide Kenyans aged above 18, who are not registered as voters, with an opportunity to enrol to vote in the August 9 election.

It will also give a chance for voters to transfer their registration to more convenient polling centres. IEBC hopes to enlist between six and seven million new voters.

According to Chebukati, the commission will also conduct mass voter registration for the diaspora in December this year.

The IEBC will include six more countries in its diaspora list, among them South Sudan, the US, United Kingdom, Canada, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Chebukati said the countries meet the minimum requirement of 3,000 voters.

Kenyans living in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Africa participated in the 2017 General Election.

The difference between the adult population in 2019 and the number of registered voters in 2017 was slightly over six million people. These are the millions that the electoral body is hoping to add to its roll.