Raila alleges plot to rig elections
By Rufus Hunja
CORD leader Raila Odinga claims a former commissioner at IEBC who was dropped as cabinet secretary is spearheading a scheme to manipulate the voter register by sneaking in ghost voters.
Raila alleges that an extensive verification of the register has revealed that people from Jubilee strongholds without proper identity cards have been enlisted as new voters and a sitting Cabinet Secretary is also part of the plans.
It is during what he termed as an impromptu voter registration verification tour at Lavington Primary school in Dagoretti North constituency, that CORD leader Raila Odinga made the claims about an elaborate scheme to rig elections by manipulating the voter register.
According to Raila, the formers CS who once served in the electoral body is using his knowledge of the systems at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to enlist ghost voters for purpose of showering the jubilee numbers come the august polls.
Raila claims some people have registered as voters using odd numbers instead of their identity cards and in some cases some have used the same number to register.
He claimed the plan is being implemented in Jubilee strongholds to give the incumbent a strong head start in the August elections.
Raila says the opposition has written to the new IEBC commissioners requesting for a meeting to deliberate on the matter.
Meanwhile, Parliament has now stepped in to entice Kenyans into registering as voters.
Subsequently, Kiambu MP Jude Njomo has moved a motion in Parliament that if approved will see Kenyans compelled to register as voters but through incentives.
The move has been informed by the low turnout in the ongoing national voter listing.
This comes a day after the independent electoral and boundaries commission announced that only 1.5 million Kenyans had registered as voters two weeks into the mass voter registration exercise.
MPs now want to re-engineer the exercise and have Kenyans register in big numbers. The MPs have to that effect crafted a motion that aims at enticing Kenyans into registering.
The legislators are calling for a comprehensive mechanisms that will be used to persuade all eligible voters to enlist themselves for general elections.
A number of Legislators are however proposing the use of Identity Cards as replacement to voting cards as a way of stemming out voter apathy.
The MPs move comes as the electoral body called on the Council of Governors to intensify voter sensitization in all the counties.
Separately, hundreds of residents in Samburu County risk being locked out of the August 8th poll due to lack of Identity Cards.
In Naivasha, Operations at Industrial area were paralyzed for the better part of the day after mechanics downed their tools of trade to mobilize Kenyans to register as voters. Donned with their oily, tattered and dirty looking aprons, the mechanics moved from one garage to another mobilizing fellow workers, majority being youths to register.
The move comes barely a day after Mai Mahiu market operators closed the open air market and blocked customers from buying goods until they produced a voter’s card.
