Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga has raised concerns following a directive by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati on voters register.
In a letter dated Wednesday, June 22, the Presidential Aspirant, through his campaign’s Chief Legal Advisor Paul Mwangi, demands to know the measures that IEBC has taken to ensure that the technology does not collapse or is not compromised during the voting day.
He also argued that the Manual Register played a key role in the 2017 General Election by complimenting the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits.
Terming the new decision as a ‘dangerous tool in the hands of anarchists’, Raila noted that it is widely known countrywide that technology often fails during the election season.
“In 2017, IEBC strongly argued for the need for manual identification of voters and transmission of results as a complementary system yet in this election, it is taking a totally and exact opposite position
“It has always been an acknowledged fact that technology during general elections fails… it is precarious for IEBC to approach this election on the assumption that technology will not fail,” the letter read in part.
Mwangi also cast doubt on measures taken by the commission to ensure that only an authentic database is attached to the KIEMS kits.
“When a name pops on the KIEMS kit, how does the public know that the kit is talking to the official register of voters and any other database,” he added.
This comes just days after IEBC CEO Hussein Marjan explained that in case of a failure, the kits will be replaced with working versions and only the SD cards will be transferred.
The pertinent questions were first raised by the former Prime Minister after clearance who wanted to know how IEBC was preparing to deliver credible elections.
In response, Chebukati announced that the August 9 elections would be conducted without the use of a physical register.
The body argued that the register had been used inappropriately in the past elections but in the upcoming polls, all voters will be identified electronically using biometric data.
To secure the kits, IEBC noted that each gadget, which will contain the digital register, will have a specific QR code for purposes of voter identification.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
