Low turnout as IEBC voter registration begins

The Erastus Ethekon-led agency is targeting to enlist some 6.3 million new voters, including the youth, women and marginalised groups in society such as persons with disabilities.

However, the reality on the ground painted a different picture with the ongoing exercise experiencing a slow start across the country.

The Nation established that new voters, mainly youth, failed to turn up to register as voters in most constituencies in Nakuru County.

An IEBC registration clerk told the Nation that by 2 pm on Monday, only 11 youth had registered as new voters.

“Most of the other people were those seeking to correct or update their voter details or transfer registration to a different electoral area,” said the clerk.

Most of the youth blamed the distance of the registration centres for the poor turnout, asking the IEBC to consider further devolving the exercise to wards and polling stations.

“With the harsh economic times in this country, we are busy looking for livelihoods, looking for jobs and other things that are important to our lives. We have less time to travel long distances to the constituency office at the heart of Nakuru City to register as voters,” said James Maina, a Nakuru West Constituency resident.

In Ndaragwa Constituency, in the neighbouring Nyandarua County, voter registration turnout remained poor for the better part of Monday morning.

By midday, IEBC clerks at the Ndaragwa Constituency offices had registered less than 10 new voters with distance to the registration centres also cited as a challenge.

“The voter registration exercise should be escalated to polling stations and wards. That way, a majority of the youth will easily access the centres,” said Mr Denis Ndereva, a Laikipia youth leader.

In Bomet Central, for instance, no one had turned up for the registration by 11 am. Low turnout was also registered in Bomet East, Konoin, Chepalungu and Sotik constituencies on the first day of the exercise with clerks idling at the appointed centres.

The Coast region also had its fair share of low turnout, where in Mombasa, by midday, the centres had registered less than five new voters.

The majority of residents who were present were seeking to transfer their polling stations, but system downtime forced officials to send them home after only collecting their details.

“We had to take their information manually and assured them that we will call once the systems are back online,” said Ms Husna Hassan, Jomvu sub-County Registration Officer.

Mvita Registration Officer Masha Masudi explained that, to ensure no eligible voter is turned away on election day, the commission has introduced multiple authentication methods, including fingerprints, facial recognition, retina and iris scans.

Currently, registration is being conducted only at sub-county offices. However, in Mvita, plans are underway to set up a registration centre at the Huduma Centre to ease access for residents far from sub-County offices. 

In Lamu West sub-County of Lamu, IEBC officials registered nil turnout on the first day of voter registration as confirmed by the Constituency IEBC Registration Officer Isaiah Madzungu.

In Lamu East sub-County, only three voters had been registered by 3.10 pm. Lamu East Registration Officer Stephen Kitsao Karani said their plan is to have a town crier move around Faza town today in the evening to inform people about the ongoing voter registration.

Kwale County also recorded a low turnout with only a handful of youth showing up to register. By midday on Monday, only two people had registered at the Matuga Constituency IEBC office from the exercise that had begun at 8 am.

Matuga Constituency Registration Officer Abdalla Chikophe said the number is likely to go up as more awareness campaigns are done.

“We have information from the registrar of persons that 12,000 people were given new national Identification Cards from 2022 in Matuga and we are now targeting the same number of people in this session,” he said.

Speaking in Mashuru town, Kajiado County where he officially launched the exercise, Mr Ethekon reiterated the commission’s commitment to ensure all eligible voters have been registered before the 2027 polls.

Allaying fears by a section of politicians that the agency is time-barred to conduct the civic exercise, the IEBC boss said they have upgraded their technology to integrate a new biometric voter registration module into the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System to allow faster, more secure and reliable services. This, he said, will facilitate more eligible voters’ registrations in a day.

"We have hit the ground in a speedy manner to recover the time lost when there was no IEBC in place. No eligible voters will be left out,” said Mr Ethekon.

He said the commission has put stringent measures to ensure members of marginalised communities, rural folks aged and persons with disabilities have not been left out during the exercise.

At the same time, Mr Ethekon said IEBC will be pushing the National Assembly and the treasury for more resources for a seamless mass voter registration to be launched after the November 27 mini polls.

"We will be going back to the National Assembly and Treasury, pushing for more funds for a mass voter registration. We will be targeting a total of 28.3 million voters before the 2027 General Election. This will target villages and wards,” he said.

For her part, Vice Chairperson Fahima Abdallah challenged youth, especially women, to register as voters in large numbers, saying the youth comprise 31 percent of the total population.

“It’s an act of responsibility to come out to vote during elections. We can only ask for our rights after participating in an election,” said Ms Fahima. 

IEBC Chief Executive Officer Marjan Hussein Marjan said the Commission is working with other stakeholders to ensure all Kenyans get the right to vote in the 2027 polls.

“Registering as a voter is the first step to ensure your voice is heard in determining the country's future leaders through an electioneering period,” he said.

Reporting by Stanley Ngotho, Mishi Gongo, Kalume Kazungu, Siago Cece, Eric Matara, Waikwa Maina and Vitalis Kimutai.