AFRICA

KENYAN POLLS: WHAT ARE THESE KIEMS KITS?

KENYAN POLLS: WHAT ARE THESE KIEMS KITS?
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Faith Nyasuguta 

On Tuesday, Kenya’s elections witnessed sporadic failures of kits used to manage voters’ roll and transmission.

In a number of stations, the polling clerks were pushed into identifying voters using the manual registers after the gadgets failed.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

According to the law, the electoral agency was given a nod to use the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (Kiems) kits to identify voters at the polling station.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) loads the Kiems kits with electronic voter identification and results transmission system software, Sim cards of network operators and secure digital (SD) cards containing registered voters’ biographic and biometric data.

HOW ARE THE KITS USED?

The kiems kit identifies voters digitally at polling stations, unlike before, when clerks used a manual register to recognise a voter in the commission’s roll.

IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati /The Star/

Once a voter arrived at the polling station, they had to present their national identity card or passport used during registration.

The polling clerk could then use the Kiems kit to identify and authenticate the voter. They did so by aiding the voter in placing their fingers on the kit for fingerprint identification.

Once identified, the voter was issued with six stamped ballot papers for president, governor, senate, woman representative, MP and member of County Assembly (MCA).

HOW WERE THE RESULTS TRANSMITTED?

Apart from identifying the voters, the Kiems kits was also used to transmit results from the polling stations to the national and constituency tallying centres.

Immediately vote counting was done, the presiding officers manually filled out the tally forms, after which they would take a picture of the forms. Under the election regulations, Form 34A is the first form used to tabulate the presidential election results. The presiding officer fills it after counting votes at the polling station.

The Form 34A pictures were then transmitted through the Kiems kit to the constituency and national tally centres and the IEBC public portal.

MANUFACTURE OF THE KITS

The IEBC awarded the tender to Smartmatic International BV in November 2021.

Kiems kit /Hivisasa/

Smartmatic builds and implements electronic voter systems. It was contracted by IEBC to supply up to 14,100 Kiems kits for use in the polls. It was also the software provider for the kits, having replaced OT Morpho, now called Idemia, which was the technology service provider for IEBC in 2017.

Days ago, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati disclosed that Smartmatic did not provide all the Kiems kits required for the election, noting that before the contract with the tech firm, the commission had 41,000 working kits.

He said this brings “the total number of the kits that are in good working condition to 55,100.”

WERE THERE DISPUTES OVER THE GADGETS?

Yes. Overreliance on Kiems kits is still at the centre of push and pull between political players and the electoral agency.

Azimio La Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his main rival Deputy President Willam Ruto of the Kenya Kwanza coalition have repeatedly disagreed on the use of Kiems kits, a matter that landed in courts. Last week, the High Court ruled that the manual voter register be used as a complementary system.

The arguments ranged on possible failures of alphanumeric search, keypad, screen pad or booting system malfunctions and battery breakdown. There were also concerns over malware infection, operating system crash or breaking of the kit if it drops.

The electoral agency said it had six extra Kiems kits in each ward across the country to act as a backup.

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Faith Nyasuguta

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