IEBC seeks data on new ID registrations

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will on Thursday meet officials from the National Registration Bureau to seek details of new identification Cards (ID) applications.

IEBC wants to get the new data to use it to project targets ahead of September's voter registration.

Under the law, registration of voters is a continuous exercise, and the commission says it wants to conduct a major campaign exercise so the meeting will help them plan.

"We want them to help us understand the number of applications and their regions so that we can plan our logistics," IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba said.

The polls agency further wants to get details of IDs which have been produced but the owners are yet to pick them up.

"Getting real time data for both pending applications and actual IDs, which have not been picked, will help us a lot in our plans," Chiloba said.

The commission, which has since launched its 2015-2020 strategic plan said it intends to register over 11 million new voters. As of March 2013, there were 14.4 million registered voters.

Chiloba said they will intensify registration to ensure many eligible voters are captured. Diaspora voters, marginalised communities and persons with disabilities will also be targeted in the exercise.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and United Nations that Kenya's population will have surpassed the 50 million mark by 2020. According to KNBS statistics, Kenya's population was 43 million in 2012.

"Population growth means increasing demand for the commission's services across the board. It is projected that persons aged over 18 years will be 25.7 million by 2017 up from 22.5 million in 2012. This segment is most important for IEBC because it forms the cohort that will be eligible to vote in the 2017 elections," the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan partly says.

Among key IEBC targets for 2017 is to have all legal reforms completed and all electoral laws enacted by December to enable the General Election to be conducted going by the laid down laws and time frames.

In achieving this, IEBC hopes to have all electoral laws reviewed and harmonised by next month, and the reviewed draft legislation submitted, debated and passed by Parliament by October.

"Key stakeholders including political parties, candidates, Members of Parliament, the media, IEBC staff, security sector agencies, and CSOs are to be sensitised on the electoral laws by December, 2016," the plan partly reads.

Polling stations

The Commission also wants to put in place a comprehensive, accurate and current voters' register to be used for elections and redistribution of registration centres and polling stations completed and gazette by June 2016.

The commission further wants overall results of the 2017 polls announced within a seven-day period after the election. It wants the existing voter education curriculum reviewed to make it responsive to the needs of voters by December and implemented over the plan period. IEBC also intends to ensure a 50 per cent reduction in the proportion of election-related cases reported and investigated in the 2017 General Election.