Kenya's first day of voter registration using Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits has been marred with delays because of violence, technical glitches caused by power outages and a lack of passwords for the kits.
The voter registration exercise was officially launched by President Mwai Kibaki at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi yesterday in preparation for the March 4, 2013 general election.
The malfunctioning of the BVR kits left Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) clerks stranded.
In some centres, the exercise was delayed by up to six hours because the kits generated password errors.
Furthermore, several centres in Nairobi were affected by an electricity blackout, which slowed down the process . At one centre, the electronic registration equipment back-up battery also failed, prompting angry members of the public to walk away.
Police were also called to restore calm at a centre in Matuga, at the Kenyan Coast, where violence disrupted the registration process.
Fighting among Kenyan-Somalis and Kenyan groups with no ties to Somalia following a Sunday grenade attack that killed 7 people and injured 24 others also diverted the nations attention from voter registration affecting turnout.
President Kibaki was among the first Kenyans to enlist as a voter in the historic exercise.
This is Kenya's first time to conduct countywide voter registrations using BVR kits, which use fingerprints and facial features to uniquely identify each voter.
All voters have to register afresh regardless of whether they had registered in past elections.
Unlike in the past, no voter’s card will be issued to a registered voter. Instead a voters fingerprints, facial features and other information will be stored in the IEBC electronic system.
To be eligible, one should be a Kenyan citizen aged 18 and above and posses a national identity card or valid Kenyan passport.
The registration exercise will run for 30 days including weekends and public holidays, and will close on December 18. The voters register will thereafter be open to public inspection for 15 days.
The IEBC plans to register at least 18 million voters . The commission has hired and trained 30,000 clerks to man 25,000 registration centres countrywide, using 15,000 BVR kits.
President Kibaki described the BVR system as an important milestone towards ensuring a credible election and urged Kenyans to register early and avoid a last-minute rush. The IEBC is conducting awareness on the exercise and has placed advertisements on the media and billboards to encourage members of the public to register.
Registered voters were impressed by the fast registration process which takes about 10 minutes. One BVR kit has the capacity to register up to 100 voters per day.
"Nigeria, for instance, managed to register 80 million voters in three weeks using the BVR system Other countries like Bangladesh, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Zanzibar have also successfully implemented the system," said IEBC chairman Isaac Hassan.
Registration of voters in the Diaspora did not however kickoff on Monday despite earlier concerns raised by Kenyans in the US who expressed fears they could miss out on the historic process. Next year's election will be the first for Kenyans living in the Diaspora to participate in. They will however vote for the president only.
"I’m concerned that Kenya's largest Diaspora may very well miss out on this historic event. That would be both unfortunate and discouraging," said Kenyan ambassador to US, Elkanah Odembo via text message sent to reporters on Saturday.
The IEBC says the date for registration of voters in the Diaspora will be announced later.
This is Kenya's first general election since the disputed 2007 polls which was marred by post-election violence in which more 1,300 people were killed and 300,000 others displaced.
Kenyans are optimistic that the use of new technologies like BVR kits will deliver free and fair elections by ending vote rigging, double voting and weird instances where 'dead people vote'.
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