A scan of your identification card, fingerprint, iris plus a passport photo of Kenyan citizens will be some of the key details the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will be obtaining as a fresh registration targeting 6.3 million voters kicks off today.

According to the IEBC Chairman Erastus Ethekon, the fresh voter registration, which is part of the country's readiness for the 2027 General Election, will see mostly young voters, who have been critical of the current administration added to the current register which holds 22.1 million names.

“Our projection of the 6.3 million new voters is not based on census data, as in the past, but on records from the National Registration Bureau. Based on this, we anticipate registering all Kenyans who will have attained the voting age of 18 by the time of the exercise,” stated Ethekon.

The exercise, which will be running between 8am and 5pm across all constituencies in Kenya will be undertaken at voter registration centers as well as at Huduma centers. However, constituencies and wards gearing up for the 27th November, 2025 elections will be exempted from this exercise.

Citizens can register as new voters, update their details, transfer registration to preferred centers, and event verify their details online.

According to the IEBC, the elections watchdog allocated KES8 billion out of its budget of KES57.3 billion for the 2027 elections for the exercise. While KES2.5 billion will be used in stakeholder engagement, a total of KES7 billion help procure new KIEMS kits.

Capturing eyes

Speaking during Citizen TV's breakfast show on Monday, IEBC Commissioner Dr. Alutalala Mukhwana explained that the fresh registration will see citizens’ iris scanned, noting that, "Let’s not be tied to our bad past experiences. We are capturing the eyes of new voters as an improvement of electoral processes to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the voters."

Dr. Mukwana, who is the head of IEBC's voter education, partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and communications committee, allayed fears that the exercise might not be credible, fingering leaders for driving this perception. 

"Leaders contribute to this by making voters think that they have control over IEBC or know how the elections are going to be," he stated.

For Kenyans living and working in foreign countries, only passports will be used in voter registration, except for those spread across East Africa countries, who may use their national IDs.

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