In fact, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which is superintending the exercise, acknowledges poor show since the listing began on October 4, 2021.
The situation has provoked calls for the electoral agency to consider extending time to capture the details of the would-be voters. The extension, according to those pushing for it, will ensure no one is locked out of next year’s elections.
IEBC targets 6 million new voters to add to the over 19 Million Kenyans who had been registered in 2017.
KANU Fresh, the Mount Kenya chapter, is leading these calls. They are urging the government to increase funding to IEBC for the extension. They called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to initiate the creation of a supplementary budget for this endeavor.
“When you visit most registration centers you note that there are a few young people who are turning up to be registered as voters. We are worried because even the few who turn up are already registered and are just seeking to change their polling details,” Albert Maguru, one of those in the group said.
“And because IEBC is decrying lack of funds to extend this exercise we are asking the head of state to get money to sustain this process so that our fellow youth can participate in the elections,” he added.
At the same time, the group is pushing for faster production of national Identity Cards so as not to lock out youths who have attained the age of 18 years.
“Calls to extend this exercise are valid. It is also important that while all these are ongoing, we continue rolling out civic education to sensitize the youth about the importance of participating in an electoral process,” Juliet Kimemia, who is KANU’s gubernatorial aspirant in Kiambu said
Apart from pushing for the extension of the registration deadline, the group says young people ought to enroll as voters if they are to have a say in the direction the country will take.
In Baringo County, Labour CS Simion Chelugui has rallied the youth to chart their destiny by registering as voters in the ongoing exercise.
“I want the ordinary citizen to know voter registration is your right. A vote will help you decide your future. The leaders who want and those you do not want, the power of your vote,” Chelugui said during a fundraiser in aid to build tuition block for Kisanana Boys High School, Mogotio Sub County.
The exercise has experienced apathy in most areas as youth distance themselves from taking part in the exercise.
Situation in Garissa
In Garissa, leaders are expressing fears that hundreds will be locked out of the ongoing mass voter registration exercise.
Abdikheir Dubo, an aspirant for the Dadaab parliamentary seat took issue with the period the applicants whose fingerprints were captured in the refugee database have been forced to wait.
“We were a very happy lot when the exercise was launched some two years ago. We had hoped that by this time when such an important exercise, like the one currently being undertaken by IEBC, then they will have gotten their ID cards so that when the time comes they exercise their constitutional right to vote,” he said.
Leaders have attributed the low numbers of those turning up for registration to unemployment, lack of ID cards, especially among the youth, drought, and lack of sensitization on elections.
With only 11 days remaining for the ongoing Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) voter registration to end, youth have been urged to register as voters.
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