By Martin Mutua and Peter Opiyo

A countrywide voter registration will be begin on Monday to create a new voting register.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission announced on Thursday that it would roll out the exercise meant to build a record of Kenyan voters from a clean slate.

The exercise will run from March 22 to May 5. The last voters’ register used in the 2007 elections was discredited for having the names of millions of people who had died.

The new register will be ready for the referendum on the Proposed Constitution later in the year.

In 2007, according to the disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya records, there were 13 million registered voters.

This number is projected to rise to about 15 million voters this year.

The Government is, however, yet to release results of the December countrywide census, which cost the taxpayer close to Sh7 billion to conduct.

In a statement to newsrooms, IIEC also announced it will undertake registration for electronic voting in 18 constituencies.

However, the commission did not list the constituencies to be covered in pilot electronic voting exercise. Sources within the commission said they will pick two constituencies each from the eight provinces.

"The mandate of the commission includes fresh registration of voters and the creation of a new voters’ register," added the IIEC statement by Tabitha Mutemi, the communications manager.

The electronic voter registration will also start on Monday but is scheduled to end on May 21 — that is two weeks after the manual one.

The public launch of the nationwide new voter registration will take place at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

Last month, the commission announced that it will require Sh6.4 billion to set up a secretariat for the registration exercise and an additional Sh3.6 billion was need for the referendum.

Key functions

At the moment, the country has no voters’ register following the disbandment of the Samuel Kivuitu-led Electoral Commission of Kenya last year and the establishment of IIEC on December 28, 2008.

The IIEC was established with eight commissioners and a chairperson, who was appointed on May 8, last year. Also disbanded was the national register of voters after which fresh registration of voters and the creation of a new voter register was included in the Constitution as one of the key functions of IIEC.

The commission, whose two-year mandate includes setting up a new voters’ roll, will also hire 50,000 registration clerks to be stationed in various constituencies.

South Africa’s retired Judge Johann Kriegler, who led a team to probe the conduct of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya in the 2007 General Election, recommended the reorganisation of the electoral body.

Among the recommendations was the disbandment of the electoral body and an urgent move to clean the voter register by conducting a nation-wide voter registration. The numbers of commissioners were also to be cut down.

ECK was effectively disbanded in December 2008, and IIEC put in place. The number of commissioners was reduced from 22 to nine.

Election years

And the Kriegler team further recommended that the expiry of the terms of the commissioners should be reorganised to ensure their retirement does not coincide with election years and that all commissioners have at least two years’ work experience before every election.

In the voter registration, Kriegler’s team recommended that issuance of ID cards be integrated with voter registration. This is to ensure that when someone asks for an ID, s/he is definitely entered into the voter register.

The team disclosed that they had detected close to 1.2 million "dead voters" in the voters’ register.

strong arguments

The team further suggested that entitlement to vote should be based on residency, unless there are strong arguments for maintaining some of the other categories presently included.

Kriegler also faulted the requirement of a voter’s card while voting, saying it is "a redundant requirement". He argued that once a voter’s name appears in the register, s/he should be allowed to vote after presenting a national ID or passport.

In light of electoral disputes, the team suggested an electoral dispute resolution court, with the final jurisdiction to handle electoral disputes, be established. A statutory six-month limit to ensure election petitions are finalised in good time was also recommended.

Another recommendation was the repeal and replacement of the rules and regulations on procedure of election petition to ensure petitions are heard in a just and timely manner.

The Kriegler team also proposed that the role of the commissioners should be re-examined vis-‡-vis those of staff with a view of establishing a clearer commission-management separation of roles.