About a month ago, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairperson Erastus Edung Ethekon, while sharing an update on the ongoing voter registration process, also stated that the commission’s enhanced voter registration was not only meant for first time voters – those who have never registered to vote before, but that the exercise was also an opportunity for pre-2012 voters who had never submitted their biometrics to the Commission to re-register. 

That statement immediately raised temperatures across the country. 

There was hue and cry from politicians, church leaders, Gen Zs, civil society luminaries and many other people in the know. How could the IEBC do this? How could they begin a fresh registration of voters who had previously voted? Some wondered where the old voter register had gone. Had these voters been deregistered? Some saw more ominous signs ahead. Was the IEBC setting in motion a process to rig the 2027 election? Or was the Commission cooking the register or opening an opportunity for suspicious characters to become voters?

The frenzy went on for the entirety of the Easter weekend, until the IEBC pacified the environment with a follow-up clarification that the Commission did not mean fresh voter registration for the entirety of those who had voted pre-2012, among other insinuations. 

The truth of the matter was that after the mass re-registration exercise in 2012, when biometric voter registration was first introduced, the pre-2012 manual voter register was effectively discarded, and any pre-2012 registered voter who did not commute themselves into the new biometric register therefore automatically ceased to be a voter, previous non-biometric voter registration notwithstanding. It is to this biometricless group of once-upon-a-time registered voters that the chairperson was making the invitation to, to register afresh biometrically. 

But trust Kenyans to smell a rat from anything that seems slightly unclear. 

However, what this excitement indicates is that there is a need for very clear communication not only by the IEBC but also by the mass media when disseminating such sensitive information. Having read the original misconstrued IEBC statement, I was clear on what the IEBC chairperson meant. But this was not enough for everyone out there. It would have been important for the IEBC chairperson to properly set the context of the situation in a more succinct way. Many Kenyans have forgotten the 2012 process, and many more, especially the young, are not even aware of what happened back then. The onus was therefore on the IEBC to properly inform the people.

On the other hand, the media that sensationally carried the story did not bother to confirm the facts with the IEBC before going to press. Or perhaps they saw the sensational angle and decided to peddle it for clicks. In fact, one media house had a full-blown IEBC SHOCKER! emblazoned on its top pages. It would have been much simpler to have called the IEBC through their various national and regional offices to reconfirm the matter. And there are good reasons to do this. 

First, given the reaction by a cross-section of leaders and the public, it was a sensitive issue that needed verification. Secondly, a decision to call for fresh voter registration imagines budgetary provisions and a much wider campaign than the current enhanced voter registration process. That process would also require parliamentary approval and direction. These two reasons are enough for a responsible media house to seek to confirm the information in their hands before broadcasting it. Given the expected mis/disinformation on the electoral process, it would be prudent for key stakeholders like the media to take measures that guarantee information integrity. 

One more thing happened in the week that is connected to the above. 

A number of voters checked their registration status and details on the IEBC portal, and to their utter disbelief, found that there was some missing information on their registration details. Two in particular; Name of the Polling Station and the Polling Station’s number. A flurry of further checks was done across the country and this missing details saga was confirmed to be true by all and sundry. Consternation, shock, disbelief! All this in the same week allegations of a dubious fresh registration were being discussed. Would the good old IEBC be able to untangle themselves from this. Yet another clarification during Easter had to be issued. 

Through their social media platforms, the Commission was able to explain the problem – polling stations and their numbers could only be generated once the voter registration process was concluded. By law, this is basically 90 days to an election, and this further allows for an opportunity to clean the register, allow for voter verification and the conduct of an audit to determine the veracity of the register. It was a simple explanation to what was building up into a major uproar especially among new and young voters who could not understand what was happening. 

These two incidents – the call for reregistration and the missing details discovery – are indicative of a number of things. First, on electoral matters, the country is clearly on tenterhooks. It is like we are all waiting for the worst-case scenario on every issue that is connected to the 2027 elections. When the Gen Z mobilized to register as voters across the country more than a month ago and found an IEBC that did not have enough resources to attend to the numbers that came out, they complained about a plot to disenfranchise them. Kenyan politicians as always took advantage of this to score political points and did not provide any guidance. We conveniently forgot that our laws allowed for a continuous voter registration process for the entirety of the election cycle. This spread is capable of ensuring all eligible and interested voters could be attended to over time, if not instantly. 

Secondly, it is clear that there is scant and convoluted electoral information including lack of predictable processes and procedures. Many young people are not aware of the Biometric Voter Registration process in 2012, nor are they clearly aware of how polling stations are generated. A lot of voter and civic education is still needed to bring everybody on board. 

In my own understanding, the biggest threat to the electoral process as it stands today is not the alleged stuffing of ballots or any IEBC frailties, but the lack of continuous adequate electoral information that would build voters’ trust and confidence thus enhancing their active participation. The IEBC and its various stakeholders have their work cut out for them.