byJeremiah Kiplang’at

 @jere_kiplangat

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is racing against time to clean the voters’ register, with slightly over four months to the August General Election. 

The commission is yet to audit the register,  putting itself in a difficult situation ahead of the polls as the roll might be contaminated with dead, underage or multiply registered voters as has been the case before. 

The newly-appointed IEBC Chief Executive Officer Marjan Hussein said the agency is still in negotiations with a “reputable” audit firm for the exercise, expressing optimism they will finalise the task in time.

 Marjan, however, said even though they are planning the audit, it is not mandatory under the existing legal structure. But he promised they would still do it to enhance credibility of the elections. 

Credibility of poll

“We are in the process of recruiting a firm to audit the register. The Elections Act says we may audit, or may not, but we have agreed we should do it to guarantee credibility of the elections. The position is that we should audit, ” said Marjan.

He was speaking at the weekend during a workshop on “Access to Information” organised by the Media Council of Kenya, Mzalendo Trust and Katiba Institute that brought together parliamentary and political journalists. It was addressed by senior officials from IEBC, the Ombudsman and the Registrar of Political Parties.

  Marjan said they were consolidating the register to capture details of the newly registered 2.7 million voters.

 “We are already consolidating the register. It is on our platforms. It is in our database. We are fully in control of it and we are in the process of developing a new register,” he added.

The firm will be expected to ensure the register does not have dead or duplicate entries. He said that once the audit is done they will open a 30-day window for verification of the details by voters before election day. 

With the additional number, the register is expected to have over 22 million voters eligible to participate in the coming elections.

He would not reveal the name of the firm, nor the cost of the audit, saying doing so could jeopardize the ongoing negotiations.

“We have not yet completed contractual negotiations. Disclosing these details would be a disservice,” he said.

Marjan, who has been acting in the position for the past four years before he was formally appointed last week, said they were working hard to ensure the elections are free of irregularities and illegalities that marred the 2017 presidential elections, occasioning annulment by the Supreme Court.

Lucy Ndung’u, a commissioner at the Commission of Administrative Justice, popularly known as Ombudsman, said they were pushing IEBC and other agencies playing key roles in the electoral process to adopt a culture of maximum disclosure of information to ensure Kenyans were properly informed as they cast their votes.

She said they would make sure the constitutional provisions and statutes on access to information are fully implemented.

“Normally, information can be provided within 21 days but this is not possible in an electioneering period. It is not possible to wait for a long time to get it. As the CAJ, we want to reduce it to 48 hours and we want to treat access to information as a right that cannot be interfered with,” said Ndung’u.

 The CEO of MCK, David Omwoyo, said they would work with government agencies to ensure information sought was easily available to journalists.   

“Denial of information is mostly because of lack of awareness by most of the office bearers,” he said.