Raila asks IEBC 10 questions as he gets cleared

Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition party flagbearer Raila Odinga today presented questions to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) regarding the functionality and preparedness of the electoral body ahead of the August polls.

This comes as concern mounts over the management of its information technology system, and poor preparation of election officers in the run-up to the polls.

Speaking after being cleared by the commission to contest for the presidency, Odinga assured the commission that his brigade will conduct itself in a manner that conforms with the requirement of the election laws and the constitution.

The former premier issued a report to the commission for it to clarify the matters addressed.

Below is the compiled list of the questions he asked.

Raila's questions to the IEBC

1. Electronic identification of voters and transmission of voters

a. Has the commission developed a constitutionally compliant protocol for results?

b. When will the commission share the protocols with stakeholders?

2. Audit of voters registers
a. What is the status, of the voters' register, county by county as well as constituency by constituency?

b. Is the preliminary report by the audit firm ready? If so, what are the preliminary findings?
When is the draft final report of the audit of the register of voters expected?

c. When is the draft final report of the audit of the register of voters expected?

3. Status of the Proposal to Amendment of the Elections General Regulations (2012

a. Proposal to amend the elections by general regulations which are currently before parliament. The status and why.

b. Proposal to amend 3 (a) of the Elections General Regulations (2012) giving the presiding officer power to open a ballot box that has been sealed to remove wrongly put materials at the constituency tallying centre.

4. Recruitment of tallying officers
The commission has submitted a proposal to amend the elections regulations to give itself an exclusive mandate to appoint elections officials, including constituency, county and presiding returning officers, as well as their deputies without sharing their details with political parties and independent candidates as presently required by regulations 3, 4 and 5 of the Elections General Regulations (2012).

5. Printing of ballot papers
a. What measures has the commission put in place to ensure there are no lapses in both logistical and security in the general election?

6. Sigmatic contact
a. What is the status of the data migration from the Morpho Idemia system to magmatic?

b. What steps or measures has the commission taken to reduce or eliminate any risk that could affect the functioning of the election technology.

7. Technology issues

In late April 2022, IEBC announced that it will add 10,000 polling stations.

a. When does the Commission intend to carry out a timely end to end testing of election technology?

b. Has the commission conducted the annual audit of election technology to guarantee data integrity to ensure that the technology functions effectively as specified?

c. (What has the commission done to) ensure that the internal controls are effective?

8. Stakeholders' engagement
What measures or steps has the commission taken to address the systemic inadequacies identified by the supreme court in 2017?

9. Election timelines
What are the compliance status and statutory timelines set out in the revised elections operations plan released by the Commission on January 17, 2022?

Chebukati responds to Raila

In his response to Raila's questions, Chebukati noted that the electoral agency will hold stakeholders meeting with all presidential aspirants, who he urged to attend in person, so they can iron out the issues.

“This is not the time to go through this because we have other candidates to clear but we shall look for an opportunity to call all candidates for a meeting where we can ventilate some of these issues. I hope you (Raila) shall attend in person where I, as the returning officer, can iron out these issues and answer all the questions in this memo in writing,” he stated.