{Former presidents Mwai Kibaki and Daniel arap Moi are among thousands of Kenyans whose names were used to register other people to vote.}
Mr Moi’s ID number 1 – or 0000001 – has been used to register one Joseph Marrion Nchabani Mwika, indicated to have been born on January 1, 1968, and whose unique identity in the BVR system is 575114.
Mr Moi’s name does not appear in the BVR registers when his ID number is keyed in. Instead it is Mwika’s name that pops up, giving credence to fears that the electoral commission register may have been corrupted.
Mr Kibaki’s ID number – 2 or 00000002 – has been used to register eight different voters, namely Gitonga Wilson Kimathii, Kanja Julius Ngede Kihinge, Evans Kariuki Kirinya, Victoria Gatwiri, Mu Ko Mugara, Duncan Muia, Mbinya Wanjiru, and Caroline Nduta.
All the eight people, registered under Mr Kibaki’s ID card, have been assigned unique identification numbers in the BVR system.
On Thursday, we established that Mr Kibaki’s ID, replaced as a duplicate on October 11, 2005, is not registered as his in the voter’s list.
Mr Kibaki’s spokesperson, Gituku Ngare, said it was alarming that people “have the temerity to manipulate such rare ID numbers” and claimed that the whistle-blowers were probably behind the scheme.
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He also accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission clerks, who agree to use such numbers to register voters of “suffering from idiocy”.
“The people who are receiving those ID numbers and registering people using them are to blame first because of their idiocy. It is common sense that such rare numbers can only be used by VIPs. I am alarmed,” he said.
Mr Moi’s press secretary, Mr Lee Njiru, described the use of the former president’s ID number as unfortunate and urged the electoral commission to correct the anomaly.
Identity card numbers 0 and 00, also used to register individuals as voters, were found to be non-existent at the Registrar of Persons’ records.
But our investigations had established that in the BVR kit, ID number 00 has been used to register one Awiti Otieno, listed as having been born on January 1, 1994.
We also established that ID number 11 is assigned to one Darius Msaga Mbela; 20 to John Muguku Wachira; 21 to James Kasyula Mutua; 22 to Githiuni Simon Danson; 23 to Joseph Kainga Mutunga; 24 to Kipyator Nicholas Kiprono Kibet; 25 to John Chelagat Kipto; 28 to Ephantus Kamuri Gathuri; 29 to Simon Reuben Njage; and 40 to Henry Luwis Thiongo Njihia.
Five other IDs presented by Mr Odinga are listed as pending replacement. They are 12, assigned to Okumu Peter Mark; 231 to Onyango Omondi Mathaye; 111 to Benson Musa Nzioka; 26 to Joseph Augustine Githenji; and 27 to Philip Ndegwa.
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On Thursday, Mr Odinga said his team had written to the electoral commission to complain.
“We want to have a meeting with the new commission to discuss some of these things. It is serious to note that we have an unreliable voters’ register,” Mr Odinga said.
Some Opposition leaders have called for the overhaul of the commission’s ICT department. They say it had been infiltrated.
But electoral commission chairman Wafula Chebukati called for calm, adding that the register will be cleaned to make it credible.
Mr Chebukati blamed the mess on the 2012 registration, conducted under commissioners who retired last month, and said such anomalies should not be used to discredit the entire polling process.
“We wish to confirm that some of the numbers highlighted by the Cord leader are indeed part of the 128,926 ID numbers that are [the] subject of the ongoing clean-up,” said the commission’s chief executive Ezra Chiloba.
“Most of these numbers were keyed into the system during the 2012 registration and do not relate to the current mass voter registration campaign.”
He described the matter as historical and promised to effectively address it to ensure the hitches are not transferred into the 2017 polls.
