Former National Assembly Speaker and Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has called for strict safeguards to protect the integrity of Kenya’s voter register, terming it a critical pillar of credible elections.
Speaking today in Makueni County, Muturi weighed in on the ongoing nationwide voter registration exercise recently launched by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), urging Kenyans to turn out in large numbers and exercise their democratic rights.
“It is every Kenyan’s constitutional and democratic right,” Muturi said.
The DP leader emphasised the importance of participation in the electoral process, adding, “By being a registered voter and coming out to vote is you determine and constitute the government of your choice.”
Muturi, speaking through the Democratic Party, said the voter registration exercise is a significant step in the country’s electoral process but warned that its credibility hinges on the integrity of the register.
“Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has launched mass voters registration process. This is a significant part in electoral process.” Muturi said.
At the same time, he urged citizens to take the exercise seriously, noting, “We encourage Kenyans to come out in large numbers to register as it is every Kenyan’s constitutional and democratic right.”
However, the former Speaker raised serious concerns about the credibility of the current voter register, citing findings from a previous audit conducted by KPMG ahead of the 2022 General Election.
“The audit firm KMPG did an audit of the registers of voters prior to 2022 general elections.”
He pointed to alarming irregularities flagged in the report, stating, “According to the audit report, there is existence of duplicate records totaling 481,711 and voters said to have registered with identity cards which do not belong to them totaling 226,143.”
Muturi added that the audit also exposed records of deceased voters, saying, “A total of 246,465 records of deceased voters were also picked.”
Further concerns were raised over invalid documentation, with Muturi noting, “Another 164,269 registrations were linked to invalid registration documents (IDs and Passports).”
The audit also uncovered serious system vulnerabilities involving unauthorized access.
“The report unearthed 14 mysterious Returning Officers (ROs) running the system,” he said.
Quoting directly from the findings, he added that the officers were able to “transfer, delete, insert, trigger, truncate, and update the voters register at will,” and that “one user, Postgress, had superuser access privileges.”
Muturi further cited the report’s findings on how these individuals operated within the system.
“According to the report, KPMG also discovered that the 14 Returning Officers were not gazetted but had worked alongside 290 IEBC officers in charge of the constituencies in previous elections.”
He added, “The audit also revealed that the ‘digital’ ROs were backed by 513 generic accounts in the IDMS against 9 genuine accounts and had access to the voters’ register in the Integrated Database Management System (IDMS).”
The extent of their access raised even more concerns, with Muturi noting, “The officers had the elevated privileges in IEBC IDMs to transfer, change voter particulars and deactivate deceased voters and the constituency.”
Muturi also highlighted the scale of irregular entries in the voter register.
“KMPG report showed that the digital voters' register had over 2 million mysterious voters.”
He explained further, “These voters registered using duplicate or fake documents, while other people registered twice in previous elections.”
The audit also revealed inconsistencies during data cleaning, with Muturi stating, “Auditors also found that during the cleaning of the voters’ register, new voters were re-registered mysteriously.”
On system weaknesses, he pointed out, “KPMG also noted that the IDMS database was not set up to delete inactive accounts after 90 days as required by IEBC policy, and this made it more uncomplicated for those who had left the IEBC to gain access to the system.”
Muturi went on to cite figures from the audit regarding the size and processing of the voter register.
“The total records within the Smartmatic register of voters that were provided to KPMG on May 5, 2022, were 21,970,597, including all biographic and biometric details.” Muturi said, adding, “Smartmatic undertook duplication of the 2,184,472 records against the 21,970,597 records to generate a fully deduplicated register containing 21,710,728 voters, which was given to KPMG on May 18, 2022.”
Against this backdrop, Muturi called for urgent corrective measures to restore public confidence in the electoral system.
“In addition, the IEBC, National Civil Registration Bureau and Immigration services must work together to confirm the details of all registered voters and their valid documentation,” Muturi said.