The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has a daunting task ahead after an audit of the voter register revealed there could be names of 1 million dead voters in the register.
KPMG presented its audit report to the commission on Friday.
KPMG executive director Josphat Mwaura noted: “In total, when you take into account the number of people who died between 2012-16, you end up with more than one million, who are potentially in the register of voters.”
KPMG estimates dead voters who are still in IEBC’s voters register to be around 1,037,260.
They could have died between November 2012 and December last year, the report indicates.
Data from the principal registrar of births and deaths indicate there were 435,157 people who had been confirmed dead but their names however, remained in the register.
In a move to clean up the register ahead of August polls, the audit firm has urged IEBC to remove 92, 277 names of deceased persons whose IDs and names matched with those in the register of voters.
KPMG in its audit of the commission’s voter register; compared data in the register of voters against third party data maintained by other State Agencies for accuracy.
This was the first independent audit carried out in a long time. It was necessitated by calls from opposition to clean up the register in readiness for credible August polls.
In general, the current voters’ register has 2.9 million inaccuracies in voter records most of which could have been caused by clerical errors.
KPMG has however, provided a list of voters who have been affected by the clerical errors to make it easier for IEBC to correct.
Some of the errors are in names, date of birth, gender and wrong recording of ID card numbers.
Opposition led by Raila Odinga has always criticized the presence of dead voters in the IEBC register.