The IEBC has directed Kenyans who failed to get their voter information via its online portal to visit constituency office and seek advice from the IEBC commissioners.
This is in light of complaints lodged by Kenyans who said they could not locate their information despite logging in to check whether they were still eligible for participation in upcoming elections. The complainants said they were getting error messages when accessing the site.
Actually, you will come across error messages like ‘inability to find ID/passport’ despite the person being a registered voter. The error message instructed them to seek assistance at IEBC offices.
Allans Ademba, an activist, sought an answer on how to handle the errors in a statement made to one of the IEBC commissioners. To this regard, the commissioner advised people to visit the constituency office in order to have their details checked.
For the commission, however, the visits are not just to make verifications. According to the officials, there could be various reasons why one cannot find their details and thus each of those cases should be looked at separately.
The situation seems to be a challenge mostly for the new voters since people who have registered some time ago indicated they did not have problems with finding their information. In his reaction to the situation, Ademba suggested that if most of the new voters will be asked to go to the 290 constituency offices, it may become overcrowded.
His comment on the problem comes as part of the campaign called Niko Kadi launched last March which led to registering almost 200,000 new voters.
Another presidential candidate, Reuben Kigame, expressed concern that his wife’s details could not be found in the register even though she had been with him at all the past elections.
In response, the IEBC asked Kigame to share his wife’s details so they could investigate the issue.
The confusion comes just days after the commission asked some Kenyans who registered before 2012 to confirm their details. However, IEBC later clarified that not everyone needs to register again. Only those who did not update their details during the switch to biometric registration in 2012 are required to do so.
The commission says the current voter register was created after the 2010 Constitution and the introduction of a digital system meant to make elections more secure and reliable
