IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati in a statement issued on Tuesday night said the body will follow the court's order to extend the deadline for new voter registration, which had expired on November 2.
The poll agency had initially said that it will not carry on with the exercise even by a single day due to budget constraints, despite a court order extending the registration to November 9.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) now says it will continue with the ongoing mass listing of voters countrywide pending the hearing of a case it filed to challenge the continuation of the exercise due to insufficient funds.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati in a statement issued on Tuesday night said the body will follow the court's order to extend the deadline for new voter registration, which had expired on November 2.
The poll agency had initially said that it will not carry on with the exercise even by a single day due to budget constraints, despite a court order extending the registration to November 9.
"On November 1, 2021 the High Court sitting in Eldoret issued exparte orders prohibiting the Commission from closing the national voter registration exercise scheduled to end today November 2, 2021," said Mr Chebukati in the statement.
"Meanwhile, the Commission has directed that pending hearing of the case tomorrow(today) , the registration process will continue taking place until further advised."
The poll agency had previously filed a lawsuit in court to overturn a court order that had extended the registration period due to budget constraints.
The case is set to be determined on Wednesday morning.
The Commission was allocated Sh1.2 billion out of the Sh4 billion it had requested to carry out the exercise.
IEBC had registered only 800,462 new voters by the end of the third week, compared to a target of 6 million for the four-week exercise.
The polls agency launched the exercise on October 4 and was targeting to register at least six million new voters by November 2.
The mass registration is part of the electoral agency's Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) exercise that started on October and was set to end yesterday before the court action.
Mombasa in the first two weeks of listing drive registered a paltry 4, 486 persons out of 190,237 potential new voters.
IEBC attributed the low voter turnout to general voter apathy, insecurity in parts of Lamu, Baringo, and Laikipia counties as well along the Kenya-Somalia border.
After the registration, data will be compiled and cleaned before the voters verify their details for a month early next year.
A final register will then be out marking the final phase ahead of the August 9 General Elections.
The commission will also conduct mass voter registration for the diaspora in December.
The commission aims to register 25 million voters ahead of the next polls, up from the current 19.6 million.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
