Questions over IEBC use of digital register
ODM chairman John Mbadi and elections experts have hit out at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over its decision to adopt a fully biometric voting system in the August 9 General Election.
IEBC has said, in a letter to Azimio-One Kenya Coalition that it will do away with physical registers at polling stations across the country in favour of biometric ones.
The commission has also said that its hands are tied over the electronic transmission of results outside designated polling stations not covered by 3G network as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2017 after parliament rejected its proposals.
Following the MPs’ rejection of its proposals, IEBC now says it will deploy satellite gadgets for electronic results transmission in areas without 3G network depending on the availability of money, another proposal causing a storm among political parties.
Meanwhile, experts have warned that biometric process is prone to system failures and in some instances, fingerprints of some voters, particularly, the elderly, could fail to be recognised by the machines. They instead propose the use of both electronic and physical register to verify voters.
However, IEBC insists that printed registers have in the past has been used as “avenues for misuse” during the voting process.
“To ensure that such misuse does not occur, and to enhance the credibility of the voting process, the commission has decided to bar the use of the printed register to ensure that all voters are strictly identified electronically using their captured biometric data and to eliminate the possibility of identification of voters using the printed register,” chairman Wafula Chebukati said in the response seen by People Daily.
With the absence of a physical register, IEBC intends to load each Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits with a digital register for identification of voters and a QR code to identify voters in a respective polling station.
“Where voters cannot be identified electronically using their biometrics, then their biographical information (alphanumeric data) as indicated in their identification documents will be used to ascertain their identity and clear them,” Chebukati states.
The IEBC boss also assured the KIEMS kits have been enabled to work in an offline and stand-alone mode during identification at polling stations.
While acknowledging that use the biometric system was triggered by the Judge Kriegler Commission in regard to the 2007 elections, Mbadi questioned the rush by IEBC to resort to full electronic voting without consulting stakeholders.
“Without the physical register, what will happen in the event of system failure? Will IEBC stop the whole process until the time when the kits are functional?” he asked.
According to Mulle Musau, a polls expert, when fully functional, a BVR kit does three things; it stores the register of voters, it automatically subtracts voters from the main national register after they vote and it centrally integrates the register so that multiple voting becomes impossible.
“Biometric is the foolproof system to deter dead people from voting. It is also a deterrent measure against manipulation of the register. But based on our past experiences, it is wrong for the electoral agency to rush it through. We need to have a parallel register that we can resort to in the event of system failure,” said Musau.
Another electoral expert, Koki Muli, warns that use of biometric alone could be a recipe for chaos unless well-implemented.
“There is need to have stop gap measures in place in the event of the electronic systems failure. It is quite dangerous to suddenly do away with the physical register. Let’s not have a situation where elections are conducted seamlessly in one area while it is a total failure in others,” she warned.
Revelation about IEBC’s decision to do away with the physical register comes barely a week after Azimio-One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga listed nine key issues that the agency must address to improve public confidence ahead of the August 9 election.
