At Sh2,000 Per Voter, Kenya's August 9th General Elections to be Among the World's Most Expensive

With a budget of Sh44.6 billion, Kenya’s August 9th general election will be among the most expensive in the world.

This means that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will spend approximately Sh2,000 for each of the 22,120,258 registered voters who are expected to participate in the upcoming elections.

Earlier this month, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati said the cost of printing a single ballot paper is about Sh23, inclusive of value-added tax (VAT). 

Greek company Inform P Lykos Holdings SA was awarded a Sh3.49 billion tender by IEBC to print and ship at least 120 million ballot papers, registration of voters and election declaration forms, among other items, ahead of the August 9th elections.

Sourcing election materials from abroad is one of the main reasons why Kenyan elections are expensive. The country spent Sh49.9 billion in the 2017 election, with Sh3.8 billion going towards security alone during nominations and the elections. The cost of this year’s election has reduced slightly as most of the equipment used during the 2017 election will still be used.

“Our problems have everything to do with an expensive legal framework and a lack of confidence in our systems and people,” Mule Musau, the National Coordinator for the Elections Observation Group (ELOG), said last year.

“Unlike countries like India with only three commissioners, we have seven. We are also seeing the introduction of ballot papers with security features. That kind of thing is expensive.”

Rwanda had the most cost-effective election in East Africa after spending Sh761.7 million for its 6.8 million voters in 2017, translating to about Sh112 per voter on average.

Uganda spent an average of Sh1,400 per voter during last year’s election while in Zambia, the exercise cost approximately 600 per voter. Nigeria, which has 100 million registered voters, will spend an average of Sh1,000 per voter in the upcoming elections. 

With the world’s largest number of voters (910.5 million), India spent an average of Sh1,000 for every voter, while the UK spent an average of Sh480 per voter in the country’s last two elections.