Mass voter registration drive kicks off ahead of August poll

Kenya’s election commission on Monday began a drive to register millions of new voters ahead of August elections, with rival parties going all out to get their supporters to sign up. Authorities estimate that some four to six million people have yet to register, crucial numbers that could swing the result. Kenya’s vote for a […]

Kenya’s election commission on Monday began a drive to register millions of new voters ahead of August elections, with rival parties going all out to get their supporters to sign up. Authorities estimate that some four to six million people have yet to register, crucial numbers that could swing the result.
Kenya’s vote for a president and lawmakers on August 8 is set to be a hard-fought election decided in large part along ethnic lines.
The country’s main opposition parties, which last week banded together to form the National Super Alliance (NASA), are counting on new voters to help them unseat incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slum the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) set up speakers blaring music next to a registration booth, while orange-clad motorcyclists whizzed through the streets to lure out voters.
ODM leader Raila Odinga, 72, who has lost three previous elections and is eager to be the candidate of the new coalition, was set to make a stop in the slum on a whirlwind tour of the city to rally supporters.