Kenyans Registered Before 2012 Required to Re-Register Voters registered before 2012 will now be required by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to register once again.
As revealed in a statement issued, the move will only affect individuals who registered as voters before the 2013 General Election. IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethekon clarified that those who registered from 2012 onwards will not have to repeat the exercise.
“If you registered as a voter between 2012 and 2026, you do not need to register again,” he stressed.
The reason behind the directive is that they are trying to capture all voters in the new biometric register.
As per IEBC, the biometric register was established in 2012 following various reforms that were carried out. It implies that individuals who registered as voters prior to 2012 are not captured in the new biometric register unless they register again.
This implies that all Kenyans who registered prior to November 2012 – one month before the 2013 General Election – will have to undergo the exercise.
The IEBC noted that the process will ensure their names appear on the list hence enabling them to participate in voting during the next general election.
Ethekon made a link between the reforms and the major changes that were initiated in the wake of the 2007/2008 post-election violence.
The current voters’ register, according to Ethekon, was developed following the 2012 boundaries review exercise and the biometric voter registration.
“The pre-2012 voters’ data was, therefore, disposed of legally,” he said.
The number of registered voters at the end of the 2012 voter registration exercise stood at about 14.5 million voters, and the figure grew to 19.6 million in 2017 and 22.1 million voters in 2022.
Through the voter registration campaign that is underway, IEBC plans to push the figure to approximately 28.8 million voters.
The enhanced continuous voter registration exercise is currently being conducted in anticipation of the upcoming General Election.