Release official Kibra voters list, ODM demands
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has now accused the electoral body of deliberately refusing to release the Kibra official voters register, contrary to the law.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna yesterday accused Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of playing “hide-and-seek” with the official document, saying it has released an incomplete register.
Sifuna has since demanded that IEBC release the register in 24 hours, failure to which, they will march to the commission’s office to obtain it, given the short time left to the election.
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He said IEBC must immediately provide ODM with a proper voter register, with all the details as required in law for verification and certification to avert disenfranchisement of any voter. “IEBC must live up to its mandate. It must not be seen to be hiding some cards under the table. It must be impartial and not dare try to play some cards under the table. Kenyans are watching you,” said Sifuna, in a statement.
Sifuna accused IEBC of not fulfilling its promise when it released an incomplete register on October 24, an exercise that the party termed a charade.
ODM insisted that a complete register must have the full name of a voter, polling station and the Identification Card Number, saying what IEBC released fell short of some details, which makes it difficult for voters to verify their registration particulars. Sifuna also said IEBC should come clear on the issue of deleting people’s names from the voter register, transfer of voters from one polling station to another and the addition of new voters into the voter register.
“Upon release of the proper register, we urge our supporters to visit the IEBC offices to verify and confirm that their names, polling stations in which they registered and their ID numbers are intact ahead of the exercise next week,” he added.
Revision of register
As a key stakeholder, Sifuna stated that ODM is obliged to ensure no voter feels disenfranchised.“It is with this in mind that we wrote severally to the IEBC culminating in a meeting on October 9 between the commission and the ODM leadership, where the commission committed to release the updated register by October 17,” said Sifuna.
IEBC published 118,658 Kibra registered voters in the Kenya gazette, with the commission noting that revision of the register has been completed following a voter verification exercise.
The commission said Laini Saba has 17,455 voters, Lindi 16,688, Makina 25,695, Woodley/ Kenyatta Golf Course 28,066 and Sarangombe 30,754.
The party made reference to a report released on October 12 by Kibra community leaders indicating that 19,200 people in the constituency had their names removed from the register.
The report also showed that 10,040 new names had been added in the voters register and 3,812 people had been moved from their polling stations to others without their knowledge but IEBC is yet to come clean on this. Sifuna said the party has been demanding the register for close to three months now, for verification purposes.
