Hours after the ODM party issued a directive they will be holding demonstrations to the IEBC Headquarters on Wednesday, IEBC has responded to the party.
Through a press statement released on Wednesday morning, the elections body refuted claims it had declined to release the list of registered voters in Kibra constituency.
According to IEBC, the body has been busy updating and preparing the list since the position was declared vacant by the speaker of the national assembly in August this year.
The statement went on to detail that the constituency had received a significant number of new enrollments as well as voter transfers since the time the seat was declared vacant.
“In preparation of the Kibra by-election, the commission embarked on the process of facilitating the voters registered during Continuous Voter Registration CVR, to participate in the upcoming by-election immediately after receiving the notice of vacancy from the speaker of the National Assembly,” reads part of the statement.
According to the IEBC, the body has been busy uploading the CVR data to the Biometric Voter Registration BVR server, deduplication process, producing preliminary register, doing quality assurance, certifying and distributing the registers to the constituency.
IEBC also acknowledged receiving three different letters from ODM on three different dates but maintained all the letters were responded to and clear directions issued.
It also revealed that all preliminary voter registers for 2017 will be availed to the constituents from Wednesday by the constituency’s Returning Officer RO.
The commission also assured Kibra voters that the final register which is still undergoing verifications will be ready by the time the by-elections will be conducted
On Tuesday afternoon, the ODM party issued a press statement that they will hold a demonstration at IEBC headquarters on Wednesday to demand a full list of voters since 2017, including the dates and centres of registration.
ODM in its demands also wanted the commission to provide full details of voters who have so far been registered on transfer since the seat was declared vacant.
The party also demanded IEBC to update them on the manual and electronic register of voters which will be used in the by-election.
Suna East MP who is also ODM party director of elections Junet Mohamed termed IEBC’s unwillingness to release the list as one way the commission was planning to rig their candidate out in the by-election.
Kibra by-election will be held on November 7, 2019, in a bid to fill the seat that was left vacant after the death of former MP Ken Okoth who succumbed to cancer in July this year.