Role of Voter Education and Performance of Electoral Management Body: A Case of Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission Kenya

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of voter education on performance of electoral management body. The study is undertaken at Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) Kenya. The study was grounded on civic engagement theory. The study was a descriptive research design investigation. The target population involved 772 commission officers with a sample size of 264 based on the Cochran formula. The IEBC officers were selected through use of stratified random sampling technique. The data collection tools were the questionnaire and interview schedule. Data collected from the field was analysed using qualitative and inferential statistics. Qualitative data analysis involved categorising responses from interviews and open-ended questions into themes and sub themes while inferential statistics was analysed using the Regression Model to test the hypothesis. The study found out that one of the pre-electoral strategies that IEBC focused on was voter education to the members of the public on regular occasion. The respondents indicated that the EMB conducted regular mobilisation campaigns jointly with other stakeholders to inform members of the public on matters relating to commission mandate in elections and boundary delimitations. Correlation statistics revealed existence of significant positive effect of pre-electoral voter education strategy and IEBC Kenya performance. It was concluded that voter education strategy played a significant role in predicting IEBC performance in Kenya. The study recommends that voter education needs to be done on continuous basis rather than waiting one year to the general election by regularly seeking funds support from government and non-government sources to support voter education