Court orders IEBC to immediately publish Kibra voters register

Court orders IEBC to immediately publish Kibra voters register

The High Court has ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to immediately release the complete Kibra voters register ahead of tomorrow’s by-election.

This follows a petition filed by the ODM Party which sued the IEBC for failing to release or publish an updated voter ahead of the by-election.

In the petition, ODM claimed it had written to IEBC three times since September 20 asking for the publication of the register but the electoral commission was unresponsive.

In his ruling, Justice James Makau directed IEBC to release the voters list minus personal details of the constituents.

However, the electoral body sought to have the ruling suspended arguing that it needed 10 days to comply with the order.

The commission claimed its personnel were are already on the ground preparing for the by-election therefore would need more time to retrieve the register.

ODM challenged IEBC’s maintaining that the register is electronic.

“It is an automated process it’s not a manual process… All they need to do is just to click a button and the information will be there,” said ODM’s lawyer.

Justice Makau, however, ruled in favour of ODM noting that failure to avail the register is a violation of the access to information law.

“Much as the IEBC has tried to pursued this court I find that it would be against the interest of justice to grant the stay and the same is declined,” ruled the judge.

IEBC had also claimed they needed to procure the services of  De La Rue to print out the register.

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IEBC Kibra Kibra by-election

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