The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) led by Chairperson Erastus Ethekon is holding a planning meeting for the forthcoming Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR).
The meeting aims to provide strategic direction on the national rollout of the exercise; clarify roles, responsibilities and coordination frameworks between field officers and headquarters teams, and legal & procedural guidelines; identify operational risks and formulate appropriate mitigation measures; develop a monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework with clearly defined performance indicators and shape a unified public communication and stakeholder engagement strategy for the ECVR period.
The planned EVCR will commence on 30th March 2026 across the country for 30 days. The target is 2.5 million new voter registrations during Phase One of the ECVR exercise.
The Commission projects a register of at least 6.3 million new voters to hit its projected target of 28.5 million voters in for the 2027 General Election.
“The ECVR is one of the initiatives of fulfilling a constitutional obligation. Our fundamental objective is to ensure that every eligible Kenyan citizen can exercise their right to vote. The credibility of any electoral process begins with an inclusive, accurate and trusted Register of Voter,” said Ethekon.
Further, the Chairperson observed that voter registration is a constitutional guarantee. Our responsibility is to make this exercise practical and accessible to all.
IEBC is shifting from a passive model to a proactive one. By engaging temporary voter registration clerks, the Commission is deliberately bringing voter registration services to the people. The personnel will travel from village to village delivering registration services directly to the people.
“Registration will be decentralized to the lowest feasible administrative levels and must also direct special attention and resources to remote, marginalized and hard-to-reach areas. Our approach must be adaptive to geographical and infrastructural challenges. No Kenyan should be excluded because of where they live,” said Ethekon.
The Chairperson concluded by observing that ECVR exercise must be transparent, accountable and conducted with the highest standards of professionalism from recruitment of clerks and logistics until the data uploads of new enrollments. All personnel involved in the ECVR exercise must uphold the highest standards of integrity. “We are trustees of public confidence. Every action we take must reflect that responsibility,” Ethekon noted.
Commissioner Dr Ann Nderitu, CBS, the Chairperson, Electoral Operations Committee said the target of 2.5 million voters over the next 30 days is grounded on demographic realities, particularly the large cohort of youth who have attained voting age since the last mass registration cycle. The credibility and inclusiveness of the 2027 electoral process will depend significantly on the Register we build today.
She noted that the success of ECVR rests on three interdependent pillars; training, logistics and stakeholder engagement where emphasis will be placed on practical competency particularly biometric capture quality, kit operation, data transmission and troubleshooting in low-connectivity environments.
Commissioner Nderitu urged that there should be strict adherence to the kit movement schedule to ensure timely rotation across wards and centres within the limited timeframe and real-time monitoring, rapid issue resolution and strong field supervision will be essential throughout the exercise.
Ag. Commission Secretary/CEO Moses Sunkuli, OGW said ECVR will base its foundation on active network connectivity, logistic and compliance to data protection laws and urged staff to plan well by identifying the risks, challenges, and propose solutions going forward.
“The Commission needs to ensure that network connectivity is up and running and any challenges still remaining are dealt with and given priority so that all our process and activities are supported by the network to make sure transfers and voter registration is real time.
“From our past challenges, you are encouraged to come up with strategies that are accurate and consistent for registration of data. The voter education strategies must be purposefully designed to make sure all voters are educated and @IEBCKenya is able to receive interractive feedback. Lets go all out to engage and ensure all people participate,” Sunkuli said.