The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has declared that dead voters will remain in the register in the upcoming August polls.
Speaking on Thursday morning, IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba stated that it was impossible for the Commission to remove all the dead voters in the run-up to the elections.
He, however, assured that details of dead voters would not influence the outcome of the polls, promising that the elections would be free and fair.
Chiloba stated that it was impossible for the deceased to vote because the Commission would verify voters based on their biometric data.
"The issue is that the commission will not eliminate 100 percent, deceased persons. Even on the eve of the elections, there are people who might die but elections must be held as stipulated by the Constitution, the biometric technology that the commission has put in place will ensure that the elections will be credible,” he elaborated during an interview on Radio Citizen.
Additionally, the IEBC boss defended the audit carried out by KPMG which cost Sh1 Billion stating that it had aided in correcting anomalies in the register.
He explained that 92,277 deceased persons whom the KPMG report cited had been expunged from the register, adding that with the death trends there could be 1 million deceased voters in the register.
“They (KPMG) told us that given the trends in terms of deaths in this country for the last five years there is a possibility of one million deceased voters being in the register but the problem was to identify who these individuals were.
"The process was guided by records from the civil registry and Department of births and deaths who gave us records of 423,000, out of that number, KPMG could only identify 92,277 as being part of the register,” He continued.
He noted that different departments have been working on the register which ensured that they found a way of integrating all the systems used.
National Super Alliance (NASA) flag bearer Raila Odinga had on Tuesday accused the IEBC of doing a shoddy job in cleaning up the register, noting that his son Fidel Odinga who died two years ago was still listed as a voter.
Read Also: Raila's Deceased Son Fidel Still in IEBC Voters Register
