Voter listing in jails ends July 9

The electoral commission has ruled out any possibility of extending Friday’s deadline for the registration of prisoners to vote in next month’s referendum.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) was compelled by a court to register the prisoners ahead of the August 4 plebiscite.

The registration deadline comes as the Anglican Church on Thursday called for the postponement of the voting on the proposed constitution.

The church is calling for further talks to resolve some of the disputed clauses in the proposed law.

On Wednesday, IIEC commissioner Ken Nyaundi said that there were no chances that an extension would be given, adding that all efforts had been put in place to ensure that the commission sticks to the timetable set out under the law.

Mr Nyaundi said that out of the 48,086 prisoners in the country, 3,211 had been registered. He was speaking when he visited Ngeria Farm Prison and the Eldoret GK Prison to evaluate the exercise.

Mr Nyaundi said that out of the 215 inmates in the Ngeria jail, 19 had registered to vote come August 4.

At the main Eldoret GK Prison, he said, 84 of the 1,400 inmates had obtained their voting documents.

Eight of the 155 inmates at the women’s facility had also registered. At the same time, most prisoners are reluctant to register because they don’t want to reveal their details, a senior Prisons officer has said.

Kabarnet GK Prison boss, Mr Barnabas Kinyor, said the inmates fear that by doing so it will be easy for police to track their criminal records.

The prison boss said of the 78 prisoners and 70 remandees at the reform facility, a mere 17 had registered as voters since the exercise began early this week.

Meanwhile, the Anglican Church’s governing body — the synod — on Thursday resolved to maintain their opposition to the draft law, but added that the country was now too polarised to handle a referendum.

And should the vote be conducted as scheduled and under such circumstances, the country risked falling apart as was witnessed just after the 2007 General Election.

“Given the mood of the nation, we believe that the postponement of the referendum is the better option,” Archbishop Eliud Wabukala said at the All Saints Cathedral.

Reported by Kennedy Lumwamu, Wycliff Kipsang’ and Dave Opiyo