The electoral commission will open the voter register to allow the 14.3 million Kenyans listed to inspect it starting January 13 for two weeks.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner Muthoni Wangai said the commission is working on getting the register opened by Saturday to allow Kenyans to verify their details following last year’s month-long registration, which closed on December 18.
"Kenyans will have the option of either verifying their details by SMS or by visiting their respective registration centres,” she said during a media briefing in Nairobi Wednesday.
Last month, IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan said the commission opted to issue a SMS number as it found that 60 per cent would prefer this method and only 10-15 per cent would go to a centre to verify their details.
The final voters’ list will also be accessible to the public on the IEBC website and available to political parties.
Following the registration, the IEBC compiled the information from all Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to create the final register. Also, the Commission is expected to release the names of people who registered using fake documents and those who registered more than once.
Their names, which will be revealed through biometric matching, will be deleted from the record and culprits will be arrested.
Ms Wangai urged political parties to handle party nominations “with maturity”.
"Some electoral problems begin at the nominations and it is important that we address the public and tell them our expectations and come out with a process that is peaceful so that we prepare for the General Election in a peaceful environment," Ms Wangai said.
She warned politicians from using foul language to dissuade female contestants.
“Women are being threatened and in the past we have heard leaders use abusive language to put them down. This is unacceptable and is stone-age behaviour and not allowed in the law and the constitution guarantees everybody their rights."
She also called on the youth to watch out for politicians out to use them in the coming weeks to perpetrate violence.
“For the very short period of two months some of them will be under the pay of politicians and other people and they may be tempted to cause violence. They must realise that the two months could ruin a whole lifetime,” Ms Wangai said.
