We've sealed loopholes in relaying election results, Wafula Chebukati assures

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati. [Samson Wire, Standard]

The electoral commission said it has sealed the lapses on the transmission of presidential results witnessed during the first simulation held on June 9.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) explained that it has developed a tamper-proof transmission to insulate it from past failures while ensuring the credibility of the vote.

“We have taken serious steps to ensure the credibility of the vote,” said Mr Justus Nyangaya, during the second simulation the commission held at Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi, yesterday.

The commission said it was forced to remodel the Kiems kits, following concerns raised by political parties after the first simulation

The Kiems kits now include inbuilt validation checks without which any data transmitted from the devices will be rejected. The Commission has also introduced a QR code on the ballot papers, a digital signature of the Presiding Officer.

The QR Code will identify the legitimate 34As, and have been programmed in a such way that no other data can be transmitted through the device.

The devices also contain an IEBC-specific registered SIM card that will insulate the process from other unknown SIM cards.

The devices will require the biometrics of a Presiding Officer and results transmitted from the devices must have his/her digital signature without which they will be rejected.

In the first simulation, political parties accused the commission of doing little to address the challenges noted by the Supreme Court when it nullified the August 2017 presidential election.

And even though political parties welcomed the changes, describing them as an improvement from the past, it was clear that the commission was still cagey about the transmission of the results.

IEBC was not categorical as to whether the system can withstand the pressure of bulk data that is a key component of polling day or whether challenges of 3G network coverage that was identified by the Supreme Court in 2017 had been resolved.

Some 580 polling stations took part in yesterday’s simulation that had a 94 per cent success. The simulation between the field station and central portal was limited to constituencies within Nairobi.

Those who attended were presiding officers from constituencies in Makadara, Embakasi North, Dagorreti South and Kamukunji.

There was no attempt to try to transmit results from constituencies that are outside the 3G network, and which has been a subject of controversy between the commission and the Communications Authority of Kenya.

Yesterday, 94 per cent of the results from the 580 constituencies had been successfully transmitted after two and half hours.

The delegation from International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute argued that the simulation had revealed unresolved challenges from the 2017 elections, notably the slow uploading of scanned polling station result protocols - form 34A - to the IEBC’s centralised portal, which resulted in confusion and distrust in the process.

The commission did not respond to concerns raised by stakeholders to try a process where wrong data is transmitted through the device.

However, Prof Guliye Abdi asked Kenyans to trust that IEBC will do the right thing.

“We have programmed the system in such way that it cannot transmit data twice. For that reason, we cannot conduct another simulation to prove what you are asking,” said Prof Guliye.