IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba has announced plans to register four to six million new voters in mass registration exercise that will kick off on the 16th of January 2107, seven months to the next general elections.
Chiloba said the current register has approximately 15.9 million voters, 6.1 million short of commission’s earlier projections.
“We had projected that by 2017 the commission would be able to register 22 million voters, and this is based on statistics that were available. We have about 9 million Kenyans with IDs that have not registered as voters,” said Chiloba.
Chiloba said that the commission has doubled the number of biometric voter registration kits available which will help in the registration process, thanks to financial backing from donors.
In relation to the network access especially locations in the country that have restricted 3G network access a requirement for electoral transmission of results, the IEBC Deputy CEO, Marjan Hussein Marjan, said that the commission has catered for this through the provision of satellite phones but in the event they fail, the commission will have an additional manual backup system.
Chiloba expressed confidence in the commission’s ability to conduct free and fair polls, adding that the commission is working hard to ensure that all would go well in the general elections.
This register will be subjected to a 30-day verification process, leading to the making of final amendments and the release of the official list by June 17.