Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno has blamed the electoral body after it yet again failed to hit the target in the recently concluded mass voter registration exercise.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had targeted to enlist at least 4.5 million new voters, but a day before the end of the exercise, it had registered only 906,211, a paltry 25 percent.
But according to Chemno, IEBC has themselves to blame for the voter apathy witnessed during the national exercise.
The DG who is eyeing the Ainabkoi MP seat says a decision by the electoral body to have clerks move from one place to another inconvenienced many.
He says the IEBC clerks registering new voters should have been stationed in one place at least for 5 days before moving to another area.
“A strategy used by IEBC was not right. One registration kit would move around many areas and this left many inconvenienced as the time they had a chance to go and be registered they could find it has moved to another area,” said Chemno.
“The best way would be to have sufficient clerks and each of the kits stationed in one place for even a week before moving out. The idea of people migrating from one place to another inconvenienced many,” he added.
But even as Chemno blames IEBC for the strategy used in the mass voter registration exercise, the commission attributed the low turnout to delays in the issuance of National Identity (ID) cards.
“The commission attributes this (low numbers) to voter apathy and the national ID-related issues,” IEBC acting CEO Marjan Hussein told the Star.
This is even as Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago had a few days ago expressed concerns over a high number of uncollected ID cards.
Mandago lamented that in one chief’s office, there were over 400 uncollected IDs – individuals who would have been eligible to register as voters had they picked their cards.
Uasin Gishu had a target of registering at least 100,000 new voters, 80 percent of who were youth.
