IIEC: Only 27 per cent have registered as voters By JIBRIL ADAN

Less than 30 per cent of registered voters have enrolled with the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya (IIEC) since the new voter registration exercise kicked off on March 22. It ends on May 5.

With referendum fever catching up with majority of the public, The Standard today reveals the status of the voter registration exercise.

So far, a total of 3,915,026 voters have registered translating to 27 per cent of the 14 million that were registered by December 2007.

South Rift region is leading in terms of percentage covered in different regions with 42 per cent of the 794,212 voters registered previously enrolling anew.

The North Rift part of the Rift Valley Province has the poorest record so far with only 10 per cent of the over 1.2 million registering afresh.

According to an interim status report obtained by The Standard from IIEC’s Corporate and Communications Department headed by Tabitha Mutemi, North Rift region has registered only 130,491 voters which is less than the total voters in Agriculture Minister William Ruto’s populous Eldoret North Constituency which had 143,723 registered in 2007.

The registration meant to rebuild Kenya’s voters roll after the previous one was blemished by the disputed 2007 General Election will run until May 5.

The new register will be used in the upcoming referendum on the new constitution.

Bomachoge Constituency is the only constituency that has recorded 100 per cent coverage of the previously registered voters. All the 70,573 voters who were listed in the old register have enrolled afresh.

Defence Minister Yusuf Haji’s Ijara Constituency located in a far-flung part of North Eastern Province has recorded an impressive 82 per cent of the original voters.

Out of the 12,703 who were registered in Ijara by December 2007, now 10,406 have registered afresh.

In Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Mwingi North constituency, a paltry 28,810 have registered out of a total of 74,061 who registered originally.

In President Kibaki’s Othaya 21,810 have registered afresh against an original total of 57,280 voters in 2007, being less than half.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Langata Constituency and Agriculture minister William Ruto’s Eldoret North Constituency will be covered in the pilot Electronic Voter Register whose enrollment starts on Monday.

The constituencies that would be covered in the electronic voter register are marked with a zero for percentage covered in the interim report.

In terms of actual figures, Nyanza South is leading with 387,287 registering since March 22. The region had 1,050,352 registered voters in 2007.

Central Eastern follows with 314,908 registered voters against an original list of 984,597.

Out of Nairobi’s 1,275,834 registered voters in 2007 only 221,967 have come forward so far.

In Wajir/Mandera region 72,126 have made the commitment out of 212,177 registered originally.

In Thika region of central Province only 292,056 have registered afresh against an original figure of 1,231,800.

But with 27.4 per cent covered nationally in the last two weeks, the remaining period until May 5 will be sufficient to register all the registered voters.

IIEC chairman Ahmed Hassan Issack had at the beginning of the exercise said his commission targets to register 18 million voters, four million above the number recorded in 2007.

The new registration exercise became necessary after commissions that inquired into the disputed 2007 poll ruled that the old voter register was blemished and should not be sustained for future use.