Not to be a wet blanket. But does anybody believe the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is going to be ready, let alone able, to hold the upcoming general election?

Let’s start with voter registration.

We know the typical problems here. Its reliance on the possession of national IDs. Which, in and of itself, automatically disenfranchises those who find it so disproportionately difficult to get those IDs — such as people in northern Kenya.

We also know the problems with the voter’s register last time round. The IEBC’s failure to ensure a single voter’s register. The differences between numbers ostensibly registered presented at different times by the IEBC in the lead-up to the last election.

And, critically, what the mapping of those differences against incumbent and opposition strongholds revealed — a systematic deflation of numbers of registered voters in opposition strongholds against an equally systematic inflation of the same in incumbent strongholds.

Some Kenyans may have “moved on” from the anger and bitterness of 2013. But we certainly haven’t forgotten. Yet, here we are, slithering down that slippery slope again.

The problems this time round? Quite apart from the fact that, contrary to a court ruling upholding Kenyans’ right to register to vote according to stipulated time periods, the IEBC cut that time period short — arguing it wouldn’t be able to conclude and clean-up the voter’s register should the law be upheld.

In other words, the law and court rulings are mere inconveniences to be respected only in the breach.

Back to the problems this time round.

The civil service, politicians and even religious organisations are essentially coercing people to register — threatening the denial of public services if proof of voter registration can’t be rendered. Voters registered in 2013 finding they’re now either no longer registered — or have had their places of registration moved without their participation, let alone consent.

Which amounts to a new form of gerrymandering. The numbers of multiple registrations against a single ID card: If caught, effectively disenfranchising a legitimate voter.
It was for all these reasons that the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee last year agreed that an independent audit of the voter’s register would be done.

KPMG got the job. But what it’s revealed about its approach to the job is not comforting.

Yes, it’s going to assess the way the IEBC went about voter registration relative to the law. Yes, it’s going to try to clean up the voter’s register by reviewing it for incomplete entries or duplicates against national registers of births and deaths as well as of IDs and passports. Yes, it’s going to look at the technological platform the voter’s register is placed on. All good.

What it’s not going to do, however, is explore the electorate’s experience of voter registration — including those who tried to register but couldn’t, as well as those who didn’t register at all. Not to be a wet blanket.

But is the IEBC anywhere near ready to do this thing? If its brief to KPMG is already insufficient?

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes