IEBC voter registration: Kenyans have until Friday to register
IEBC clerks register students during the launch of voter listing of college students at UoN Towers at the University of Nairobi on October 13, 2021.
The High Court in Eldoret has lifted an order extending IEBC's new-voter registration exercise by a week.
Justice Erick Ogola has quashed an earlier order he had issued for the enhanced voter registration to be extended until November 9 after Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) argued it lacks funds to cater for the extension.
Kenyans now have until 5.30pm on Friday November 4 to register as voters.
Initially, the new-voter registration drive expired on November 2, before the court issued an extension order.
When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, IEBC cited lack of funds as the major hindrance to executing extension of the 30-day voter registration exercise that came to close on Monday.
The Commission, which was represented by lawyers Moses Kipkogei and Mwangi Kangu, disclosed it spends Sh40 million daily on the exercise.
They argued that IEBC had been allocated Sh1.27 billion by the National Assembly for the exercise which has since been exhausted, thus extension could expose them to further financial hitches.
“The commission spends Sh40 million daily on this exercise. For the last three days, the commission spent Sh120 million alone, money which the commission had not been allocated. However, with adequate resources, the commission is more than ready to continue with the enhanced registration exercise even tomorrow,” argued Mr Kipkogei.
The polls agency also argued that it was not been consulted before court order on extension was issued.
The case was filed on Monday by Patrick Toroitich Cherono, a voter from Eldoret. He had moved to court to stop IEBC from ending the enhanced voter registration exercise, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
He argued that since IEBC started the exercise targeting at least 4.5 million new registered voters, only 760,000 had been registered across the country.
Justice Ogola directed that the case be heard on November 9 and ruling of the case is set for November 25.
