3 500 000 REGISTERED

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 9 – More than 3.5 million Kenyans have so far signed up in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) said it was a 24 percent of the total number of registered voters in 2007.

“We have 3, 522, 174 registered by April 6. In 2007 there were 14, 465 444 voters,” said IIEC Communications Manager Tabitha Mutemi.

She said the numbers will however increase beginning next week when IIEC will commence the electronic voter registration in 18 constituencies.

IIEC has asked those eligible for voting to register in any registration centre for the sake of the referendum since it will require only a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ vote.

Wajir-Mandera and Garissa-Ijara Regions have realised the highest percentage of registration compared to 2007 voters leading with 35 percent, South Rift Region is also following closely with 33 percent of people registering compared to the 794,212 voters in 2007.

North Coast lags behind with only two percent of voters registered. Out of the 4001,850 voters in 2007 only 8,495 have registered. North Rift is also among the areas with a low registration of 130,491 out of the 1,265,567 voters in 2007 which is only 10 percent.

The rest of the regions have realised 20 percent and above of those who had registered in 2007.