Crisis at IEBC as Voter Registered 47 Times, Others Transferred Illegally

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati during the clearance of presidential candidates at the Bomas of Kenya on Monday, June 6, 2022.
IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati during the clearance of presidential candidates at the Bomas of Kenya on Monday, June 6, 2022.
IEBC

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is investigating a case of violation and gross misconduct by a section of its staff members.

IEBC Chairperson, Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati, on Friday, June 24, cited instances where a voter was registered 47 times using the same identification document.

According to Chebukati, other voters were registered using ID cards that did not belong to them, an act that contravenes the election law.

Kenyan electoral ballots
Ballot boxes that were used during the Msambweni by-elections on December 14, 2020.
Twitter

The IEBC chairperson further disclosed that the Commission is investigating three staff were involved in the unprocedural transfers of voters.

Chebukati stated that any individual transferred without their knowledge will be returned to their correct voting station before the August polls. 

He pointed out that the register is managed and owned by registration officers in the 290 constituencies and the 47 counties, which are fully in charge of it. 

However, any activity on the register was blocked after May 4 for auditing and verification.

"We are actually finalizing investigations on about 3 officers and they will be apprehended to face the law and that should be done in the course of the week," Chebukati explained.

IEBC CEO, Marjan Hussein Marjan, stated that 4,000 voters may also be prosecuted for having registered twice at different polling stations.

"Individuals who have registered more than once with IDs and passport numbers and ideally I would classify them as crooks. Out of that, we have managed to handle 59 per cent of the recorded 4,757 voters," he stated.

File photo of Kenyans in a queue waiting to cast their vote in a past election.
Kenyans in a queue waiting to cast their vote in a past election.
Photo

"There were 226,143 records that do not match with the National Registration Bureau and the Department of Immigration Services. Meaning that there were IDs and passport reference documents that matched with the National Registration Bureau and Department of Immigration Services  but the names recorded in our database and the other database were not agreeing."

According to the data made public by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of eligible voters has also increased from 25,212,096 in the last election to 27,857,598 this year.