Bill seeks heavy fines or jail term for IEBC officials who bungle poll

IEBC Tallying centre National presidential tallying centre at Bomas. [File, Standard]

A Bill proposing that electoral commission officials guilty of committing electoral offences be punished by imprisonment or fined millions of shillings has been tabled before the Senate.

The Election Offences Amendment Bill 2024 sponsored by Senate Majority Leader  Aaron Cheruiyot and Minority Leader Stewart Madzayo seeks a jail term of 5 years or a fine of not more than Sh2 million for electoral officials found guilty of an electoral offence.

The Bill proposes to make it an offence for members and staff of the commission who unreasonably delay the declaring of elections results or knowingly alters declared election results. If passed by the Senate it will be an offence for members and staff of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and other officials to oversee an election in ungazetted polling stations.

 “A member of the commission or staff having any duty to perform pursuant to any written law relating to any election who makes, in any record, return or other document which they are required to keep or make under such written law, an entry which they know or have reasonable cause to believe to be false, or do not believe to be true commits an offence,” states the Bill.

It will make it an offence for commission staff to permit any person whom they know is able to read or write to vote in the manner provided for persons unable to read or write. The Bill seeks to make it an offence for electoral officials to permit any person whom they know or have reasonable cause to believe is visually well to vote in the manner provided for persons who are visually impaired or persons with disability as the case may be.

It will be a offence for electoral officials to wilfully prevent any person from voting at the polling station at which they know or have reasonable cause to believe such person is entitled to vote. “An election official who wilfully rejects or refuses to count any ballot paper which they know or have reasonable cause to believe is validly cast for any candidate in accordance with provisions of such written law commits an electoral offence which is punishable according to the law,” states the Bill.

The Bill states that an election official who wilfully counts any ballot paper as being cast for any candidate which they know or have reasonable cause to believe was not validly cast for that candidate, commits an offence. It seeks to have election officials who interfere with a voter in the casting of his vote in secret and where required under the Elections Act or any other law to declare the result of an election, fails to declare the results of an election considered to have committed an electoral offence.

It makes it an offence for electoral officials except in the case of a member, officer or person authorised to do so to purport to make a formal declaration or formal announcement of an election result and without reasonable cause does or omits to do anything in breach of their official duties.

“Any electoral official who colludes with any political party or candidate for purposes of giving an undue advantage to the political party or candidate and wilfully contravenes the law to give undue advantage to a candidate or a political party on partisan, ethnic, religious, gender or any other unlawful considerations commits an electoral offence,” states the Bill.