2.9 Million New Voters: IEBC's Registration Figures, August 2026

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said on 20 August 2026 that 2,936,516 Kenyans had registered as new voters since continuous registration began on 29 September 2025, Capital FM reported. The commission wants a register of about 28.5 million for the general election on 10 August 2027, against 22.1 million in 2022, which means roughly 6.4 million new voters. The Parliamentary Budget Office put the August figure at 45 per cent of that target.

Where the 2.9 million came from

Almost all of it came in one month. The IEBC's Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) Phase I ran from 30 March to 28 April 2026 in all 290 constituencies and 1,450 wards, and signed up 2,345,476 new voters. Routine registration at IEBC offices between 29 September 2025 and April 2026 added 267,249, the Nation reported from the commission's final status report, released on 30 April. Together that made 2,612,725.

Subtract that from the 20 August total and about 324,000 people registered at constituency offices and Huduma Centres between the end of April and 20 August. That is BallotWinners' arithmetic from the two IEBC figures; the commission did not publish the number itself.

The April exercise needed a lot of equipment. The Nation reported 30,615 registration centres, 12,520 trained officials and 5,390 KIEMS kits. The target for the month was 2.5 million, so Phase I reached about 94 per cent of it.

Week by week in April

The Elections Observation Group (ELOG) has published the IEBC's weekly ECVR snapshots:

Weekly additions ran above 500,000 after the first few days. Transfers, in which an existing voter moves to a new polling area, grew faster towards the end. A further 3,752 voters changed their particulars.

IEBC chairperson Erastus Ethekon credited an "open kit" rule, under which anyone could register at any kit wherever they came from. The Nation compared the month with earlier drives: 1.45 million in the first phase of 2016 and about 1.5 million in 2021.

The counties

Nairobi City led with 276,886 new voters in Phase I, followed by Kiambu with 128,859 and Nakuru with 102,207, the Nation reported. ELOG's county data gives the rest.

By region, as ELOG groups them, the Rift Valley registered 671,958, Eastern 342,719 and Central 282,286, while North Eastern registered 63,960. The Nation noted that arid and semi-arid areas lagged because of distance, poor infrastructure and security problems.

Six electoral areas were left out of Phase I because of by-elections or petitions: Emurua Dikirr, Malava, Mbeere North and Ol Kalou constituencies, and Endo and Porro wards. Ol Kalou's catch-up drive is described in the Ol Kalou registration drive.

What 2.9 million does and does not tell you

These figures count new registrations only. The register also loses voters who have died, and the IEBC said on 20 August that an independent firm would carry out a forensic audit before the register is certified for 2027. No updated total for the register as a whole had been published by 23 September 2026.

The arithmetic to the target is still steep. Some 3.5 million more new voters would be needed to reach 28.5 million, if the register lost nobody. The reasons the IEBC chose that number are covered in IEBC's registration target explained, and the gap among young voters in Gen Z is still missing.

Money and timing

The IEBC's 2026/27 budget gives Sh3.2 billion to voter registration, inside a Sh12.8 billion line for registration and operations against the Sh18.4 billion it asked for, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The wider shortfall is in the IEBC's Sh23.7 billion gap.

The PBO said the IEBC plans continuous registration between July and December 2026 and an audit of the register from January to March 2027, with verification finished 60 days before polling day. As of 23 September 2026, no date had been announced for an ECVR Phase II or for the close of registration.