Chances of an October 17 poll slim, says firm

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati (left), joined by IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba, addresses a press conference on June 14, 2017. OT-Morpho has said it was ready to open up its servers as demanded by Nasa. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • In the run-up to the August 8 General Election, IEBC had four months to configure, test and run a results transmission simulation of the kits.
  • But even if the commission was to beat the challenge of the kits supplier, there is the disturbing reality of the polling centres.

The possibility of the presidential election being held on October 17 was thrown into doubt Monday when a company in charge of the results transmission system said it would not be ready by then.

French firm OT-Morpho informed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in a letter that were the Supreme Court to require it to move the results transmission system to Kenya, the prospect of holding a fresh poll within the 60-day constitutional deadline would be technically impossible.

“The detailed conclusions of the Supreme Court, which are still unknown, do not compel for changes if not compatible with the date of the fresh election,” Mr Olivier Charles, the firm’s vice president and General Manager, Africa and Middle East business unit, told the commission in the letter dated Monday.

SERVERS
This, he argued, could be the only possible way to hold the election as scheduled.

“Should the Supreme Court request that the RTS system be hosted in Kenya, it would be technically impossible to meet the October 31 deadline,” the firm said in the two-page letter to IEBC seen by the Nation.

During the petition hearing, the court ordered a read-only access to the results transmission server, a request IEBC failed to implement.

The commission told the court that it was difficult to implement the order because the servers were in Europe and “people are asleep”.

“If they are asleep, wake them up,” Chief Justice David Maraga told IEBC lawyers.

VOTING DATA
A September 1 four to two judgment of the Supreme Court invalidated the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ordered another poll within 60 days, whose deadline is October 31.

Since the ruling, the French firm said, it had been working on reconfiguring its 45,000 voter identification and results transmission kits to be used in the election.

It is a tedious, one-by-one transfer of the memory cards that were used in the August 8 election for safe keeping, with the law requiring that such information be preserved.

The firm said after that, it had to install a new results transmission system, the register locked to every polling station and the names of the two presidential candidates following the locking out of the other six from the fresh poll.

“As a consequence, in the scope of the fresh election, OT-Morpho has to reinstall a new RTS system as well as in the 45,000 kits,” it said.

“This represents a very significant amount of work, which cannot be secured by October 17.”

CRISIS
One gadget can only send results of candidates whose details had been entered before polling day, and cannot send the details of another polling station other than that for which it is configured.

“In order to allow for an external audit on the results transmission system used for the August 8 elections, OT-Morpho decided to freeze and backup the RTS system as well as related data, in the system or the Kiems kits,” the French IT company said.

The configuration, sources said, would take at least 30 days from the start date, which has not begun.

And though the commission has the leeway to vacate its October 17 date, the possibility is that the agency might not even be ready by the end of the two month period and that could open up what could be a monumental legal crisis.

NASA
In the run-up to the August 8 General Election, IEBC had four months to configure, test and run a results transmission simulation of the kits.

The court found IEBC to have committed illegalities and irregularities in the results transmission, meaning without an overhaul of the way things were done in the previous poll, the commission may not escape another attack from the court.

It only has 43 days to the deadline, and 28 to the October 17 date, but with an increased campaign by the Raila Odinga-led National Super Alliance to cancel the Morpho tender and seek a completely new supplier.

“There is no reason we cannot get a new supplier. We have given IEBC Sh15 billion. We know more than five firms ready to supply the Kiems kits in 30 days,” Mr Odinga told a journalists in Nairobi on Monday.

POLLING STATIONS
But even if the commission was to beat the challenge of the kits supplier, there is the disturbing reality of the polling centres.

More than 80 percent of the 40,883 polling stations are in schools, and with the announcement by the Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i that the date for national examinations would not change, the commission is back to the drawing board.

It has two options: Gazette new polling stations or maintain the October 17 date, and retain the already existing sites, an option that is as good as not on the table now.

“The choice of schools as polling stations, in the first place, was because they were the most convenient, ...with the space and facilities. Getting new stations in that short period may be very difficult,” an IEBC insider said.

EXAMS
The commission, sources said, could choose to take polling stations to all primary schools, meaning the election has to be done at least four days before the October 31 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination begins.

The French firm, however, said it was ready to open up its servers as demanded by Nasa.