The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has listed 2,164,185 new voters countrywide in the third week of the month-long campaign, missing the weekly targets by almost half.
The slightly over two million voters represent 50.54{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of its 4,282,096 new voters target.
According to the IEBC, North Eastern region, which includes Garissa, Mandera and Wajir, leads in the registration drive with the electoral body meeting 80.57{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of its target, which represents 63,100 new voters.
Central Kenya region, which includes the Nyeri, Kiambu, Nyandarua, Kirinyaga and Muranga counties, came second with IEBC meeting 66.23{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of its target, which represents 318,457 new voters.
The third week targets for North Eastern and Central Kenya were 78,315 and 480,863 new voters respectively.
The Western region, which includes Bungoma, Busia, Vihiga and Kakamega, lagged behind in the voter registration exercise with the IEBC registering only 185,683 against the target of 519,429, representing a 35.75{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33}.
Nyanza region, which includes Kisii, Kisumu, Nyamira, Migori, Homa Bay and Siaya, recorded 248,390 new voters against the target of 597,925, representing a 41.54{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33}.
Another 12,712 voters have been registered at the Huduma Centres across the country, barely a fortnight after the IEBC announced that it would use the centres to carry out the registration exercise.
To boost the number of registered voters before the Thursday, February 16 deadline, the IEBC says it will register the youth in institutions of higher learning from February 8 -14.
“The target institutions are those with students from various parts of the country. The Commission relies on the support of the administration of these institutions and the respective student leadership,” IEBC CEO, Ezra Chiloba, told a press briefing on Tuesday, February 7 at the IEBC headquarters in Nairobi.
“The students will be allowed to register for any registration centre of their choice countrywide.”
The Commission also says it will register Prisoners in all the 118 prisons from February 20 -27, 2017 but will only be allowed to vote for the presidential candidate.
“Prisoners will be able to register for centres of their choice countrywide. The Commission has developed regulations that will see Prisoners vote only for the Presidential seat in the 2017 General Election.”
On Diaspora participation, “the Commission will register voters in the four East African countries of Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. It will also register voters in South Africa.
“Considering the logistics and constraints of time, the Commission saw it prudent and tenable to start with these countries. The law allow for progressive registration and voting by Kenyans in the Diaspora,” noted Chiloba.
After the registration of voters, IEBC will clean up the register before making it public.
“After the voter registration exercise, all enrollments will go through a process of matching which is the comparison of the finger prints and the details of the voter (names, ID Nos., address).”
“The matching process is to ensure that no one is registered more than once. This gives a preliminary register of voters which is used for inspection of the register.”
The inspection period runs for one month from May 10 to June 10, 2017.