Protests aside, errors in last elections abound

Away from the political storm over the fate of the electoral commissioners, attention has turned to the system itself and what needs to be fixed before the election in August next year.

The structural problems that led to the challenges of the last polls are yet to be resolved. In 2013, a Sh8 billion voting and results tallying system crumbled.

Critics say the commission’s management of its information technology system is not up to par and that election officials are not well prepared. The commission on the other hand says it is ready to conduct the polls.

The use of the electronic system had been billed as the sure cure to the manual registration, voting and tallying of the 2007 election. But the electronic system failed.

The ambitious plan to transmit results electronically from polling stations to a central database crumbled reportedly because of system overload, but critics alleged a deliberate attack to tamper with the results.

Passwords expired and batteries failed in most of the 15,000 electronic voter identification devices which cost the taxpayer Sh5.4 billion. Polling officials resorted to manual registers.

Questions have also been raised about the choice of the technology, with analysts suggesting cheaper, low-tech measures such as using indelible marks to check multiple voting which they say is the bigger threat to credible elections than double registration.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission executive officer Ezra Chiloba on Friday acknowledged that sophisticated technology was not necessarily the answer to electoral challenges, but told Saturday Nation that the commission would use any “mechanism that will work for us”.

He was confident that preparations for elections were in good shape as the country heads into the General Election in less than 14 months.

“We have advertised for a new data centre that ensures electoral data availability, sustainability, security and integrity,” said Mr Chiloba.
In the last polls, vicious tender wars dragged the buying of some election materials to one-and-a-half years. Some of the equipment arrived so close to the election day and was sent to polling centres before it was tested and staff trained.

GADGETS NOT CONFIGURED

Some of the 301,593 temporary poll officials saw the mobile phones for the first time on the polling day. Some gadgets were not configured, while others were not compatible with the network provider.

“Acquisition of such items only happen when you have money. And now we have got money. All technology should be in by December and locked in,” Mr Chiloba explained.

The commission has been allocated Sh18.3 billion in this year’s budget, an amount the poll’s chief says will be adequate for the Sh19 billion they had budgeted for. Sh3.4 billion will be spent to buy electronic voter identification devices and transmission materials, while Sh3.8 billion will be spent on voter registration.

A commission audit after the 2013 election pointed out lapses and inefficiencies in the last polls.

Some of the hitches were the late arrival of polling materials, ballot boxes without corresponding lids, power failure, malfunctioning of the electronic devices and the confusion on the streaming of voters.

The commission plans to conduct mass registration early next year. “Thereafter we will inspect the roll and add them to those so far registered. From May 30, there will be no more admission of new voters,” Mr Chiloba said.

He said voter lists will be posted on the doors of polling stations a week before the election to boost accountability. The commission also plans to increase the number of polling stations from 31,000 to 44,000 to speed up voting.

But even as Mr Chiloba spoke, one question that is unanswered is how the commission could ensure its independence when it relies on external systems to, for instance, relay results.

He could also not be drawn into explaining how the presidential tally superseded that of the other positions by two million votes, a claim the Opposition Cord has made in their booklet titled Kenyans’ case against IEBC.

It says 10 million voted for governors, 9.9 million voted for senators and 10.1 million for woman representatives while 12 million were voted for the presidential candidates.

QUESTIONED CONFLICTING NUMBERS

Cord insists it is improbable that two million people voted for presidential candidates only.

Analysts have also questioned the conflicting numbers in the various registers, an anomaly they say is evidence of tampering.
“The register tampering was staggering,” points out constitutional lawyer Wachira Maina. He adds there were “unexplained” deletions and additions in the registers.

“Some 13,790 voters were deleted from the register in Coast and Nyanza; 50,102 voters were subtracted from the register in Nairobi,” Maina writes in an article ‘Verdict on Kenya’s presidential election petition’ published in the regional weekly The East African in April 2013.

“In Central Province and Rift Valley, 68,836 voters were added; 6,604 were added in North Eastern and 4,222 voters were added in Eastern Province.”
Senior Counsels Paul Muite and Nzamba Kitonga call for the reduction of commissioners so that the bulk of money and training goes to the secretariat.

“But talk of having commissioners work part-time is misplaced. Running a commission needs constant oversight and leadership and you cannot have commissioners that are not committed running such an entity,” warns Mr Kitonga, who chaired the committee of experts that drafted the 2010 Constitution.

Prof James ole Kiyiapi – a 2013 presidential candidate – says it is inexcusable that a technology procured using billions of taxpayer’s money should have failed without anyone taking responsibility.

He says everything should be done, including hiring experts of this technology from the source, to get it right.

Additional reporting by Patrick Langat