No new constituencies - IEBC announces as voter registration start date set

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has clarified that no new constituencies will be Gazetted before the 2022 General Election.

Speaking during the flagging off of the Voter Education Week, IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati clarified that the process of delimitation will be completed by March 2022.

IEBC is mandated to review the names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years, and not more than twelve years.

The last review was conducted in March 2012, nine years ago and ahead of the election which won President Uhuru Kenyatta his first term in office.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati ece-auto-gen

According to Chebukati, the review process was delayed by challenges with funding for the process.

"The commission has initiated capacity building for its staff, procurement of requisite tools and conduct of a pilot boundaries review. However, these processes have been hampered by inadequate budgetary allocation," the chairperson clarified in February 2020.

The Wednesday statement confirmed that the Commission had since received funds for the exercise as well as an allocation to conduct the voter registration exercise.

Voter Registration to begin in July

IEBC confirmed that the voter registration exercise will begin in July 2021 with Sh14.6 billion allocated to the exercise.

The Commission is targeting 25 million new voters in the exercise.