By Felx Olick and Lonah Kibet
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang has added another twist surrounding the controversial 3.9bilion biometric voter registration process suggesting that it should be suspended till 2017.
Kajwang said that it was not possible to use the system in next year’s polls because of its complexity warning that it would be a recipe for chaos.
“Forget about thumb prints, forget about photographs, those are very complex things that need a lot of time, a lot of patients and a lot of testing if they don’t want us to go the way we went last time(2007) ,” insisted the Immigration Minister.
He maintained that the process cannot be effectively implemented in less than one year adding that next year’s election is viciously contested and cannot be used as an experiment.
Speaking in his offices at Nyayo House in Nairobi yesterday, The Mbita MP cautioned the Isaac Hassan led Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) against imposing on voters a system which he termed as new and untested.
He said that it was imperative that both voters and candidates clearly understand how the biometric process works which he said calls for thorough education.
“Don’t impose a new and untested system on voters who are very suspicious and enlightened,” said the Minister
However, he said that he was not raising the red flag about the integrity of IEBC but was concerned that the time span was unrealistic and if hurried would be a fiasco.
“We are not talking about the integrity of IEBC, they have best intentions. But even with best intentions, industry and sleeplessness, you will not achieve. Forget it,” insisted Kajwang.
He rooted for the manual voter registration process and defended it arguing that it was not the cause of the mayhem that dogged the 2007 polls.Kajwang insisted that the voting process was messed up by the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya during the tallying process at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
“Do the registration manually and perfect the tallying system,” Kajwang urged the IEBC.
Kajwang said his experience stems from his Ministry that also deals in biometric, data entry and registration of persons. He allayed fears that many youths would remain without identity cards even as the election approaches. The minister added that he has liaised with the Director of Registration of persons and would soon kick off the process.
Kajwang promised that a special Gazette notice would be issued on Friday this week that would guarantee free replacement of lost ID’s without the previous ksh 300 levy.
