People who turned out to be registered as voters in the just ended mass voter registration in Bungoma and Busia were below the target as the first session came to an end.
The lower western region coordinator of independent electoral and boundaries commission (IEBC) of Bungoma and Busia counties Mr. Patrick Odame told west media limited as he spoke in his office in Bungoma.
Mr. Odame revealed that before the exercise began, they were targeting to register more than 274,000 voters from Bungoma only and more than 171,000 voters from Busia.
He said this has not been achieved since they have only managed to register 69,600 voters from Bungoma and 35,800 voters from Busia which he said it is a very low turn up compared to what was expected.
Mr. Odame refuted claims that attributed the low turn up of people that registered to few registration kits saying that there were enough machines for the registration process since there were 304 machines to serve Bungoma and Busia counties only.
Mr. Odame said that in his opinion, what made people not to register in large numbers is because their lives have not changed for the past years even after voting so they don’t see any need of registering as voters.
On the issue of extending the registration period, Mr. Patrick insisted that they will not extend the period encouraging those who are not registered to visit IEBC offices within their constituencies and they will be registered since the process will continue in IEBC offices.
Mr. Odame said there are still many uncollected ID cards lying in the office of register of persons urging the owners to pick them and come to the IEBC offices to register as voters.
He said those IDs should be distributed to village elders for easier access by their owners.
He also encouraged people who live with the physically disabled people within the society to ensure that they bring them at the registration offices for them to register as voters.
