Only 40 people daily is enough to make 18 million
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
25 November 2012
Is it possible to register 18 million voters in 30 days? Definitely YES! And it can be done without putting the registration clerks under any pressure. This is how the numbers work out:
The Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has acquired 15,000 registration kits. To enrol the targeted 18 million voters, each kit will need to register an average total of 1,200 people; that is 18,000,000 divided by 15,000.
Since the stations are open 7 days per week including public holidays, it then turns out that each kit has to register 40 people per day (1,200 people divided by 30 days).
The clerks are working continuously from 8am to 5pm; that is a 9-hour shift or 540 minutes. This means that to get the 40 people daily average, each voter has a time slot of about 13 minutes and a half (540 divided by 40).
Now 13 minutes and a half is more than enough time to finish the process. The last time that I registered on the old manual process, it took less than 10 minutes. Furthermore, I have heard it from two friends who have registered this week that it is now taking less than 5 minutes. Therefore, the 30 days given are more that double the time required for the exercise.
Going by the reported 5 minutes, it is easy to see that the 40 voters for one day will cumulatively take only 200 minutes (40 multiplied by 5). That is; 3 hours and 20 minutes. Taking this out of the 9-hour daily shift, we are left with 5h:40min for the clerks to re-charge batteries in case of a black-out and to browse the internet while waiting for the next client!
The problem with us Kenyans is that we like leaving everything to the last minute! So, most people will go to the registration centre on the final three days.
But, knowing that the process takes 5 minutes, a 9h shift can only accommodate 108 people (9h multiplied by 60min divided 5min). Thus the 15,000 centres will only enrol a maximum of 4,860,000 voters.
That is still a decent number but it is pushing our luck too much. Imagine being the registration clerk working non-stop for 9 hours in the presence of impatient clients who think you are too slow or you don’t know your job or both. You will break down under the pressure and the working speed will follow you downhill… perhaps to a third of normal.
In that scenario, only 36 people will be registered per day instead of 108. Thus the total enlisted on the last three days will be closer to 1.5 million than to the 4.86m ideal expectation.
So what can YOU, my dear reader do to help the situation? Simple: take out your diary; pick out the most convenient day to register; mark and reserve it. Tomorrow morning (Monday), get permission from work on that day. Then, when that day comes, go and get registered.
If you don’t plan for it you will find that you have no time and, in my opinion you don’t deserve the right to vote!
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