National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula addressing religious leaders from Bungoma County at his home in Sirisia on Saturday/IMAGE /HILTON OTENYO

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has urged religious leaders to help mobilise Kenyans to register as voters as the country prepares for elections.

 

Wetang’ula said the clergy are well placed to support the Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration exercise being undertaken by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, given their influence and close engagement with communities.

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"Clergy should leverage the immense influence the church has among people to ensure the IEBC not only meets but surpasses its registration targets,” Wetang’ula said.

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He commended the IEBC for decentralising the exercise through the deployment of temporary registration clerks to grassroots areas, saying the approach had brought services closer to the people.

He said the outreach could be further strengthened through structured mobilisation within churches and other places of worship.

IEBC chairperson Erastus Ethekon said during the launch of the exercise on March 30 that the commission targets to register 6.3 million new voters.

This would raise the national voter roll to 28.5 million ahead of the 2027 polls.

Ethekon said the recruitment of temporary clerks is aimed at enhancing outreach, particularly in marginalised and hard-to-reach areas.

Addressing religious leaders from Bungoma at his home in Sirisia on Saturday, the Speaker urged them to encourage youth to acquire National Identity cards.

"Clergy can even take stock of youths without IDs and guide them on where and how to obtain them so they can register as voters,” he said.

 

Wetang’ula expressed concern that many eligible young people risk being locked out of the electoral process due to a lack of ID cards.

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said about 11 million Kenyans who already hold national identity cards are yet to register as voters.

The government is targeting to issue three million new IDs through an ongoing mass registration drive.

Kipsang said the processing time for IDs has been reduced to between three and seven days. Applicants in Nairobi can now receive the document on the same day due to improved technological capacity.

He also said 42,000 uncollected IDs are lying at various registration offices across the country.

 

Wetang’ula also disclosed that Sh400 million has been allocated in the supplementary budget to clear long-standing salary arrears owed to workers at Nzoia Sugar Company.

He said the move follows a directive by President William Ruto and is intended to address concerns by employees who felt side-lined after the government cleared pending payments to farmers.

Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka said the region had benefited from the government’s development agenda and urged residents to support President Ruto’s re-election bid.

Webuye East MP Martin Pepela praised the Speaker for leveraging his position to advance development in the area and called on the clergy to support his future political ambitions.