5 000 000

The final lap to referendum came with news half of the 10 million voters Interim Independent Electoral Commission expects to bring into the new roll have registered.

Twenty days to the end national exercise, IIEC met political parties and asked them to sensitise Kenyans on the importance of registering so as to take part in the referendum.

IIEC Chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan ruled out possibility of an extension after the end of the exercise on May 5. Speaking in Kisii Thursday, he said: "We will strictly follow the timelines we issued for voter registration to enable us prepare for the referendum."

The new figures came out as Prime minister Raila Odinga used the first day of his official tour of Coast Province to lobby for the ‘Yes’ vote, while Agriculture minister William Ruto met his ‘No’ team in Kuresoi. Both are canvassing before the official campaign period.

The Proposed Constitution Attorney General Amos Wako will publish on May 6, a day after voter registration closes, will only be passed into law if voted for by more than half of all the voters who will cast their votes.

"This will give us space to prepare for the referendum within 90 days of completing making a new register," Issack said.

Highest number

An interim status report released by IIEC Thursday showed 35 per cent of the 14.2 million people who were on the 2007 voter register have enrolled afresh. The register was believed to have errors and unpurged dead voters.

North Rift has so far registered the highest number of voters with 500,831, which constitutes 40 per cent out of the original 1,265,579 that were in the register discarded last year following the disputed 2007 elections.

The region had also recorded the biggest improvement since last week when it had only 100,000 people on the new roll. On Monday, Ruto asked resident of the region to enroll in big numbers.


From left: Kenya Outreach Tidings Bishop Nicholas Olumasai, Kakamega ACK Bishop Simon Oketch and Women Representative NCCK western region Leah Chailu arrive at Booker Academy, Mumias Thursday. [PHOTO: BENJAMIN SAKWA/ STANDARD]

The report, does not include records of 18 constituencies, including Lang’ata and Eldoret North, that are taking part in the Electronic Voter Register pilot.

Thika Region in Central Province and Central Eastern Province followed with 444,433 (36 per cent) and 440,834 (36 per cent) respectively.

Voter apathy

In Nairobi, 316,273 out of the original 1,275,834 number of voters have enrolled afresh.

IIEC was optimistic the 10 million mark could be attained given that half have registered even before Kenya’s traditional last-minute rush, and less than a week after EVR opened in 18 constituencies set aside for the pilot programme.

IIEC chairman decried high voter apathy in the country but expressed hope that the situation would improve after all interested groups were brought on board. He said IIEC had attained the 4.9 million mark.

While in Taveta Thursday, Raila where he again said the document was perfect for Kenya.

"I have read the document and this is the best one Kenyans will have. Those opposing it are just misleading Kenyans and should be ignored," he said at Seweni Primary school in Taveta.

Speaking a day after President Kibaki and Raila called on Kenyans to accept the draft, Ruto called for its rejection. He claimed ‘some politicians who are out to settle scores’ would use the new constitution to dispossess people of their land.

"We must not make a constitution with some people in mind. Whom do you want to dispossess?" he asked. He accused the Committee of Experts (CoE) of changing some of the clauses earlier agreed upon by the Parliamentary Select Committee.

In Nairobi, IIEC Chief Executive Mr James Oswago sought the input of political parties to rally Kenyans to enrol in big numbers. Oswago said the commission was now getting concerned with the pace and reached out to political parties to mobilise their people. Party chiefs, however, complained IIEC had sidelined them.

"At the beginning, we had a feeling that political parties and politicians would divide the voters on party lines and opted to only use Community Based Organisations and the civil societies to assist us in sensitising the public on need to exercise," Oswago explained.

But angry party officials said "IIEC got its act wrong" by seeking the services of the CBOs some of which they claimed were "dubious". KADDU’s Aluda Esendi who spoke to journalists outside the venue claimed the IIEC merely wanted to use the parties while they had structured arrangements with the CBOs in the voter registration campaigns.

Censuring IIEC

Sources from the meeting said the CEO was also taken to task by Narc Kenya Chairman Martha Karua who led other officials in censuring IIEC over claims it failed to consult parties before beginning the exercise.

Karua told the meeting IIEC could find itself in a difficult situation in future if it failed to decide once and for all the system of voter registration it wanted used in the country.

"Can the IIEC decide what system it wants employed in voter registration such that the whole country has a uniform system," said Karua.

She was supported by Kanu’s Justin Muturi who added that parties would support IIEC in seeking funds for countrywide electronic voter registration.

Oswago was taken to task over anomalies detected in record of voters he presented at the meeting, according to sources. Inquisitive party officials claimed there were inaccurate entries.

The officials said that the lists presented by Oswago had entries for some constituencies including some where the exercise had not taken place on the date indicated. The CEO later apologised for the mix up clarifying the mess was due to a typographical error.

"The figures appearing on some of the 18 constituencies are erroneous since we had not registered any voters by the time the report was prepared," Oswago told The Standard.

No campaign

According to sources the record indicated that as at Monday Nakuru Town had registered 3,144, Kamukunji 3,500 and Kajiado South 18,863 voters. "We were surprised the list as prepared by the IIEC was misleading because on the dates shown the exercise had not started in these constituencies, which were put on hold awaiting EVR exercise which kicked of on Monday," said our source.

Meanwhile, National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) announced that it had embarked on a countrywide ‘No-Consensus-No-Referendum campaign. The umbrella body of 26 churches and 12 organisations maintained it would marshal support from faithful across the country to reject the draft unless sticky issues were addressed.