KPMG chief executive Josphat Mwaura and his IEBC counterpart Ezra Chiloba arrive at the stakeholders briefing at the launch of the register's audit report in Nairobi, June 9, 2017. [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]
Doubts have been cast over IEBC's voter register after an audit firm raised the alarm concerning dead voters in the register.
The electoral agency has now been urged to thoroughly review their register and clean it to ensure dead voters do not “vote”.
“In total, when you take into account the number of people who died between 2012-16, you end up with more than one million, who are potentially in the register of voters,” said KPMG executive director Josphat Mwaura.
The firm has cautioned IEBC to develop a comprehensive policy that will erase the deceased people from the register.
“The biometric registration should be the primary mechanism for identification of voters during the election, because in the event that this is not applied, there is a likelihood of dead persons participating,” Mwaura said.
He asked the Department of Civil Registration to ensure the commission gets all death records for a thorough verification.
Mwaura added that there is need for inter-agency collaboration so that the Department of Civil Registration provides a list that is reliable and complete.
“Only a small number of them have been expunged in the last five years. The IEBC should obtain a complete and detailed list of death records from the registration department,” he said.