Voter registration 101: What you need to know

IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethekon. [File,Standard]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has launched an Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) drive running from March 30 to April 28.

In a gazette notice dated March 27, IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethekon said registration services would run seven days a week across all 47 counties for the full 30-day period.

The drive, gazetted under Gazette Notice No. 4490, is central to the commission's preparations for the 2027 General Election.

The commission has trained 12,000 clerks who will operate at more than 30,000 registration centres across the country, with ECVR designed to address specific technical and operational gaps from previous exercises, including decentralisation to improve accessibility and a sharper focus on youth.

 

IEBC is targeting 2.5 million new voter registrations during this phase, with projections to grow the national register to at least 28.5 million voters ahead of the 2027 polls.

Who can register and where to go

Any Kenyan citizen aged 18 or above holding a valid National Identity Card or Kenyan Passport is eligible. According to IEBC, registration centres operate daily from 8am to 5pm throughout the exercise.

Venues include County Assembly Wards on a rotational basis, any of the 57 gazetted Huduma Centres across all 47 counties, institutions of higher learning, IEBC Constituency offices, and the commission's Customer Experience Centre (CEC) on the ground floor of Anniversary Towers, Nairobi.

Registering more than once is a criminal offence under the Election Offences Act (EOA) No. 37 of 2016. A person convicted is liable to a fine not exceeding Sh1 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both, and shall not be eligible to vote in that election or the next.

For already registered voters

Registered voters wishing to transfer their vote to a different electoral area must present themselves in person at the IEBC Constituency Office in their preferred area.

Those seeking to update or correct their details must go to the constituency office where they are currently registered. Services such as voter transfers, changes of particulars, claims, and deletions are handled only at constituency offices by Registration Officers or their deputies, not at Huduma Centres or ward-level registration points.

Ethekon noted the commission would not conduct the exercise in electoral areas with scheduled by-elections or ongoing election petitions.

According to IEBC, three constituency by-elections are scheduled for May 14, meaning those constituencies are excluded from the current drive.

Voter registration at Huduma Centres will continue beyond April 28 and will only stop when the commission issues a specific suspension notice.

Once the enhanced drive concludes, Ethekon said registration would resume at Constituency offices countrywide.