Ganze Member of Parliament Teddy Mwambire has claimed there is a ploy to import people from other constituencies to register as voters in Ganze constituency.
Mwambire said the plan is being mooted by aspiring leaders from the area.
“I have received reliable information that there is a plan to import voters from other constituencies to Ganze. The people were to be ferried using 10 vehicles. The vehicles were to fuel at a petrol station in Mtondia in Kilifi North constituency to Ganze. They were going there in the guise of distributing relief food but the intention is to register as voters in Ganze,” he said.
Mwambire is facing stiff competition from Kilifi county chief officer for public works Kenneth Kazungu.
The MP said voter importation will not improve the economic status of the constituency as the candidate will make sure he serves those he imported from other areas at the expense of the locals.
He said voter importation was done in 2007, 2013 and 2017. In 2013 several vehicles carrying voters from other areas were waylaid and their windscreens smashed. The ferried voters scampered to safety
“Ganze constituency can’t be salvaged by vote importation. I thought we would be sensitizing those who haven’t registered to do so within the constituency but not import votes from other constituencies to Ganze. This is a scheme to again disadvantage the locals. We’re our enemies,” said Mwambire
The legislator said he has assigned people to monitor the BVR kits daily to make sure the clerks sign them at the end of each day to avoid some from being influenced to register imported voters.
Kilifi county elections manager Abdulwahid Hussein said the commission is alive to the matter.
Hussein said even during the continuous voter registration, several imported voters were refused registration as they could not tell even who their area chief is.
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“We have had this problem and it is against the elections offences act of 2016. People used to be ferried in vehicles to come and register and if you ask them about the area they know nothing. Such people, we turn them away. This is tied to voter bribery and it has consequences. Let us give people of that particular area a chance to elect their prefered leader not impose a leader on them,” he said
Hussein said for a voter to be transferred to a particular area, he should have been a resident of that area for at least six months.
“Security agencies should be vigilant about this matter as it can be a security threat. People form vigilantes to bar such imported voters from voting. We will try to sieve those who want to transfer votes to make sure we register only the genuine ones,” he said.
Before the kick-off of the enhanced mass voter registration on Monday, Kilifi county had 511, 485 voters.
In the enhanced mass voter registration, IEBC is targeting to register a minimum of 3,912 and a maximum of 6600 voters per day for the next one month.
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