Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma has called for Kenya’s existing voter register to be scrapped and a fresh registration exercise conducted ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Kaluma said the first priority should be to ensure that all eligible Kenyans are registered before undertaking a comprehensive exercise to establish a new and verifiable electoral roll.
Speaking during an interview on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, the legislator argued that starting afresh would not be unnecessarily tedious, noting that voters would still be required to verify their details if the existing register were retained and cleaned.
“From there, my advice is that number one, ensure all Kenyans are registered. Number two, let us clean the register,” Kaluma said.
He, however, said he had previously advocated for a more radical approach—doing away with the current register altogether and registering voters afresh.
“Remember when I first came here, I was saying we should not even clean. Let us just collapse the register and register people afresh, because in any event we’ll still want people to verify,” he said.
Kaluma questioned whether the 22 million registered voters recorded in the 2022 General Election would remain the same if Kenyans were given an opportunity to register afresh.
“If that happens, I can tell you, in August of 2022, our total voter numbers will not be the 22 million we are told,” he said.
His proposal comes as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) continues preparations for the 2027 polls, including voter registration and plans to verify and audit the register before it is finalised.
The commission has projected a voter population of about 28.5 million for the next election.
Kaluma also urged electoral authorities and political stakeholders to shift their attention to voter turnout once registration and verification are completed.
“Once you register people and ensure the register is clean, work on turnout,” he said.
He argued that voter turnout deserved greater attention in election preparations because the number of registered voters does not necessarily translate into the number of ballots cast on election day.
