By Seth D
The one thing IEBC is not doing is to PUBLISH the voter register. Any other they are doing now seems to be geared towards covering up the fact that they have refused to publish the voter register in its entirety. The commission readily publishes voter register statistics…”ooh, there are 19 million voters, ooh Kiambu has 1.2 million voters, ooh, there are 40,000 polling stations…ooh Kajiado County registered the highest etc” but these are mere details.
The devil in the details is, without publishing the voter register, no one can know for sure that of the 1.2 million voters in Kiambu, 300,000 are ghosts and IEBC/Kassait/Waiguru/NIS/NRB generated.
The publication of the IEBC voter register ought to be a straight-forward thing but because IEBC knows Kenyans will go through the register line by line and raise hell with its nearly 2.9 million dead or NIS/Waiguru generated voters, the commmission is dithering.
A case in point is that of Job Omani Nyangweso. He recently visited us at Orange House. He registered as a voter in 2012 at Kilimani Pri School, Nairobi. He voted in 2013 right there. Never changed his voting location. Never transferred his voting center. So he believed he was still a voter in Kilimani.
Yet during the voter verification process; Job found out that his ID had been used to register a Hillary Imende, with his new polling station being Kalita Pri School in Turkana County.
There is no Kalita Primary School in Turkana. Meaning this polling station is, in and of itself, a creation of elements in IEBC. It doesn’t exist.
Then the circus started.
IEBC officials told him the problem was with the National Register Bureau. He visited NRB and they checked the ID details, it was only him owning the ID number. He returned to IEBC and they told him not to worry, technology will show its him on Election Day. When he insisted on correct details, the verification clerks couldn’t help him. He was given a form to fill, with the rider that the corrections will be done at the ‘IEBC Headquarters’. This did not happen.
Sending his ID to 70000 returns an error. Never mind he has a valid ID and he validly registered as a voter.
On Election Day there will be one outcome. Job will key in his ID and Imende’s name will pop up. He will fume, demanding to vote; and he will be thrown out, and arrested, and the next day charged with “causing disturbance”.
A vote lost. An innocent voter locked up. That’s the legacy of Ezra Chiloba.
People like Job, and they are many, are in the voter register.
With revelations that only 20% of Kenyans verified their details, and with the example of Job’s case; even those who realized early enough that their details had problems may find themselves locked out.
People registered elsewhere. People transferred without their knowledge. People whose ID details have been used to register others, so as to disenfranchise them.
The IEBC voter register is the dark horse in this election. Why NASA higher-ups are not enthusiastic in pursuing it viciously beats me.
From where I sit, all I can yell is: IEBC, PUBLISH THE VOTER REGISTER!
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