The Independent and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has moved biometric voter registration kits (BVR) to universities and colleges in order to allow students to register and choose their preferred polling stations.

“The BVR kits will be opened to allow students register in any registration center of their choice countrywide,” said IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba.

The students have six days to register before the February 14 deadline of the mass voter registration exercise, which kicked off on January 16.

Diaspora wants IEBC compelled to list voters outside EAC

The Kenya Diaspora Alliance has opposed IEBC’s resolve to lock out voters outside the east African community (EAC) and South Africa.

The Alliance said it will move to court to have to have IEBC compelled to implement the May 2015 supreme court ruling, which ordered the commission to put in place infrastructure to progressively ensure that Kenyans living in the diaspora are involved in the electoral process.

The alliance is also opposed to a requirement given by the IEBC  that Kenyans abroad seeking to register as voters must provide their Kenyan passports.

“Even in other parts of the world, there are Kenyans who no longer use Kenyan passports, but maintain Kenyan national IDs.” said the alliance Chairperson Dr. Shem Ochuodho.

The Alliance is also demanding for an increase of voting centers across the world. They are proposing for an additional one in Namibia and Botswana to add to the South African one, three in the US, one in Canada, two in Japan, Australia or china and two more in Europe.

“We must not allow the government to disenfranchise us again this time like they did in the 2013 elections. The Kenya Constitution explicitly grants universal suffrage to all eligible Kenyans, including in the diaspora, to vote. We must demand that the IEBC moves immediately to register the diaspora as voters just as it is happening at home,” said Mr David Ogega, president of Association of Kenyan Diaspora Organisations.