Legal practitioner Wahome Thuku has urged Kenyans who registered as voters before 2012 to heed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) call to register afresh, dismissing social media criticism as unnecessary noise.
Thuku said complying with the directive will not disadvantage anyone ahead of the 2027 General Election.
“If IEBC says you register afresh, please register afresh. Kizungu mingi acha,” Thuku said, emphasising that there is no harm in re‑registering under the current biometric system.
“You won’t suffer any prejudice by just registering again,” he added, noting the need for clarity on voter status ahead of the polls.
Thuku drew a parallel with past legal disputes involving the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), where parents sought court orders to compel release of examination results.
In those cases, the judiciary held that KNEC, as custodian of the results, could not release data that did not exist.
“If KNEC is the custodian of results, no court can force otherwise,” he said.
He applied the same logic to voter registration, stressing that if IEBC’s current biometric Register of Voters does not contain an individual’s name, then the person must follow the commission’s registration process.
“If IEBC says they don’t have your names, you have no other way than to register. Unless you want to write your names with your own pen,” Thuku quipped, underscoring the practical necessity of re‑enrolment.
Biometric Register Requirement
IEBC has been clear that voters who registered before the introduction of biometric registration in 2012 are not automatically included in the current biometric Register of Voters (RoV).
The commission defines the biometric register as the official roll for all elections, and individuals without biometric data captured will not be eligible to vote in 2027 unless they re‑register.
The call comes amid the ongoing Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) exercise, which is open until April 28, 2026.
IEBC aims to register at least 2.5 million new voters and reports substantial progress with over 344,000 registrations already recorded.
The commission has deployed registration kits across constituency offices, Huduma Centres, tertiary institutions, and its Customer Experience Centre in Nairobi to facilitate the process.
IEBC officials stress that fresh registration also allows citizens to update personal details, transfer polling stations, or correct data errors. Valid national identification documents are required during registration to ensure accuracy.