The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has opened investigations into claims that students at Kenyatta University were being offered money to change their voter registration details to another constituency.
The investigation follows the circulation of a video recorded outside the university on September 8. In the footage, two men are seen allegedly offering students cash in exchange for transferring their voter registration details to Wajir North Constituency.
The video was recorded by Kenyatta University community leader Vincent Maina after he and other students confronted the two men.
The men allegedly said they were from Wajir and claimed they had been sent by a Wajir County Member of Parliament.
However, investigators have not independently established whether the two men were actually working for any politician or whether the claims made during the confrontation were accurate.
The identity of the politician said to be behind the exercise also remains unknown as detectives continue with their investigations.
Maina later became part of the DCI inquiry after the video gained widespread attention online.
Five days after recording the footage, he was summoned to the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road, where he spent nearly five hours responding to questions from detectives.Investigators are also examining claims contained in the video concerning 14 voter registration acknowledgment slips.
The documents shown in the footage were said to belong mainly to newly admitted students at the university.Information visible on the slips indicated that the students had allegedly been registered in Bote Ward, within Wajir North Constituency. Welmura Primary School was listed as the polling station.
The claims regarding the documents and the registration of the students have not been independently verified.Sources familiar with the claims have said that some students were offered between Ksh200 and Ksh1,000.
The money was reportedly to be paid after the students provided proof that they had completed the voter registration process. The DCI is expected to establish whether such payments took place and, if so, who organised and financed the exercise.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has also addressed the issue, making it clear that the presence of voter registration kits at universities is not in itself evidence of an illegal activity.
The electoral agency explained that deploying registration equipment to institutions of higher learning is part of its normal voter registration process. However, the commission said it would take action against anyone found to have breached electoral laws.
The IEBC is working with security agencies as investigations continue to establish what happened at the university and whether any offences were committed.
The two men captured in the video have not been traced, according to the information available.
The investigation comes at a time when questions about the integrity and possible manipulation of the 2027 General Election continue to attract public attention. Concerns have grown following remarks by UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar, who said that “even the dead would rise to ensure President William Ruto wins.”
The remarks drew a response from IEBC Commissioner Alutalala Mukhwana, who sought to explain how Kenya’s biometric voter registration and identification system works.
Mukhwana said the use of fingerprints and iris scans would make it difficult for deceased persons to register or participate in voting.
“Biometric machines use fingerprints and iris scans. How will the deceased vote? How will they register?” Mukhwana stated.
The Kenyatta University incident has now placed renewed attention on voter registration activities ahead of the 2027 election.
The ongoing DCI probe is expected to establish whether the claims in the viral footage reflect an actual organised voter registration exercise or whether the incident was misrepresented.
Leave feedback about this