IEBC to test electronic results transmission from counties

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will Monday conduct a dry run programme to demonstrate how transmission of results through the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) will be done.

The 45,000 Kiems kits will be used by IEBC officers to verify registered voters before voting and to facilitate a smooth and reliable electoral process on election day.

The demonstration will be done across all county tallying centres.

In Nairobi, the test will be done at the Bomas of Kenya at 3pm

In Mombasa, it will be at Bandari College while in Kisumu County the test will be done at Tom Mboya Labour College.

In Nakuru County, it will be at Nakuru High school.

Figure 1

The dry run comes at a time when there is anxiety following the disappearance of ICT Manager Christopher Msando on Friday night.

He is one of the few staff at the commission with knowledge of the location of ICT servers.

Mr Msando, who is in charge of ICT systems and data centre support, was reported missing barely one week to the August 8 elections.

He was recently appointed to act as the data centre and infrastructure manager and was last seen at the IEBC’s Anniversary Towers offices at 10pm on Friday.

The IEBC will use the Kiems kits to enhance the credibility of the results during the elections.

Figure 2

The unique, multi-functional tablets, called Morpho Tablet 2, can deliver high accuracy biometric identification and matching, making it hard for one to rig elections.

The commission will use the tablets to verify the voters list before the election and to authenticate voters with their fingerprints and photo before allowing them to vote.

The touchscreen Android device offers 4G high-speed data transfer, enabling efficient results transmission.

The tablets are fitted with a heavy-duty 24-hour standby high capacity battery pack.