Voters who registered before 2012 will not be required to register afresh, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has clarified, dismissing widespread reports.
The clarification follows media reports and social media claims suggesting that all voters registered before 2012 would be required to undergo fresh registration, sparking concern among Kenyans over their status.
In a statement, the commission said only those who failed to enrol in the biometric Register of Voters (ROV) introduced in 2012 are required to register.
“Those who registered before 2012 do not need to register afresh unless they did not enrol when the biometric register was established,” the commission said.
It explained that before 2012, voter registration was manual, but shifted to a biometric system following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and boundaries delimitation.
The biometric register has been in use since 2013 and remains the official database.
According to the commission, the register stood at 22,120,458 voters after an audit during the 2022 Kenyan General Election, which it described as accurate and credible.
The IEBC urged Kenyans to ignore misleading reports and seek information from official channels, insisting there is no cause for alarm.
“There is no need for panic,” the commission said, adding that its processes are inclusive and aimed at strengthening democracy.
