Rift Valley leads voter listing as referendum nears

By Athman Amran

Rift Valley Province has registered three million voters, representing 25 per cent of all listed voters.

This emerged as the country’s figure of registered voters surpassed the 12 million mark, according to the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC).

The expansive Rift Valley will, therefore, have a huge impact when Kenyans vote for or against the Proposed Constitution at the referendum expected in August.

The sparsely populated North Eastern Province had the lowest voter registration turnout before the manual exercise closed on Sunday, with only 221,000 people registered as voters.

The figures IIEC released yesterday do not include those from the ongoing electronic voter registration in 18 constituencies, which will continue until May 21.

The release of the figures further heightens the referendum mood as the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps prepare for high-octane campaigns.

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are expected to lead the ‘Yes’ rally even before the IIEC announces the referendum symbols and the official campaigning period.

On Friday, the ‘No’ team led by Higher Education Minister William Ruto take their campaign to Machakos and Kitui before moving to Meru on Saturday.

Yesterday, the group asked Kenyans to reject the draft, claiming it had been doctored and new clauses inserted apart from the issues they had raised.

The voter registration was extended to Sunday from Wednesday last week, when 11.7 million people had registered, a move that netted over 600,000 voters.

Voting bloc

According to figures released by IIEC Chairman Ahmed Hassan Issack, Central Province came a distant second with 2.786 million registered voters. Nyanza was third with 1.995 million, pushing neighbouring Western to fourth spot with 1.350 million.

Nairobi had 1.260 million registered voters, to emerge fifth.

Eastern Province came sixth with 1.157 million voters, majority of them from Lower Eastern with Upper Eastern contributing only 154,000 voters.

The figures indicate voters from Rift Valley, Central and two more provinces could decide the fate of the Proposed Constitution if they vote as a block.

Rift Valley, Nairobi and Central could also play a key role in the 2012 General Election.

Yesterday, the number of registered voters had reached 12,318,220, according to figures Mr Hassan released at the Kenya Institute of Education, Nairobi.

He said the final figures at the close of manual registration on May 9, are still being received at the commission’s headquarters in Nairobi.

The number of those registered in preparation for the referendum, is now 87 per cent of the 2007 registered voters. There were 14,202,613 registered voters in 2007.

"IIEC headquarters is in touch with all regional and constituency election co-ordinators. We are working round the clock to receive and compile the final figures," Hassan said.

The IIEC is waiting for materials from Parath, Lokipoto, Kalelemo and Narogole in Turkana North and South Constituencies, North Horr and Illiret in Upper Eastern region and Bura in Coast region.

Other regions yet to give their final tally are Central Rift, South Nyanza, Malindi and Central Eastern.

"While we have the actual figures via telephone messages, the figures cannot be entered into our system until we receive the actual registration forms," said Hassan.

The IIEC chairman also said the referendum question will go to the Government Printer today.