Coast residents protest over voter listing delays

Curious sheep at a voter registration centre in Kiboino, Baringo County. The exercise started with low turnout with a section of residents claiming they did not know it had kicked off. [PHOTO: KEVIN TUNOI/STANDARD]

Faulty Biometric Voter Registration kits and power outages marred the first day of voter registration in the coastal region.

Power outages were reported in Mombasa where a number of voter registration officials appeared to have either carried faulty machines or had not arranged for alternative power back up for the kit's batteries.

The registration machine's batteries failed to work at Ziwa La Ng'ombe and Freere town primary schools in Nyali constituency of Mombasa forcing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to request for power connection from the institutions.

In Kilifi County, persistent breakdown of the Biometric Voter Registration Kits (BVR) caused massive delays in the exercise.

At one point, The Standard witnessed voter registration officials forced to move from Mtomondoni Primary School in Mtwapa , Kilifi to a private hair salon after the kits run out of power.

Still in Kilifi, the exercise had not begun in parts of Ganze by 1pm, causing anger and anxiety among dozens of young residents who had gathered at Marere and Migumum-miiri registration centres in Jaribunu ward.

Eager residents were also stranded at Vyambani centre for lack of registration clerks and material.

In Taita Taveta, a number of voter registration confirmed that the exercise started in a slow pace due to defective Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kit batteries.

Wundanyi Constituency Election Coordinator John Mwawasi, his counterparts in Taveta and Mwatate constituencies Frank Mwalenga and Jacob Machekele said IEBC was forced to replace the defective batteries after they failed to work.

But the exercise went on smoothly in Mvita constituency, where the coordinator Ali Hassan Mwakulonda said he had only replaced one faulty fingerprint scanner.

"Machines are bound to have some problems," he said.