Technology changes face of Kenya elections

By Kiundu WaweruThe Matuga and South Mugirango by-elections have amply demonstrated how use of modern technology can enhance the integrity of electoral processes, and greatly eliminate the prospects of vote manipulation.The direct transmission of vote tallies to monitoring centres, effectively announcing the results as they come, has been made possible by technology.These were some of the recommendations in the Kreigler Report that probed the botched 2007 General Election, which called for the development of an integrated, secure data transmission system linking vote entry and tallying at constituencies and polling systems to a national tallying system. This would also see progressive announcement of partial results from polling stations compared to the traditional way of announcing constituency results. A polling clerk assists elderly women in Monday’s by-election in Matuga. Computerisation of the electoral process would allow constant monitoring of the ballot. [PHOTO: /MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]The recent electronic voter registration, in readiness for the August 4 national referendum, was the first big step towards technology-driven elections.Maxwell Waiyaki, a resident of Kinoo, was awed as his fingerprints were electronically taken, and moments later, a Webcam snapshot taken before his new voters card was laminated. "I think the way people vote can be changed by embracing technology. I mean, look how fast I was registered. The management of this system seems good as one cannot register twice, and the data is stored safely," Waiyaki enthused at Mama Ngina Primary School in Kikuyu.Manual Processing Another man who served as a registration clerk in the run up to the 2007 poll said the electronic system was much better than the manual processing that the endured three years ago."It’s faster, accurate and convenient as you can back up data in case of any mishap. It also minimises room for mistakes," he said.Indeed, acting on its mandate to develop a modern system for collection, collation, transmission, and tallying of electoral data, the Interim Independent electoral Commission, (IIEC) sees the piloting of electronic voting registration (EVR) system as a demonstration of its commitment to delivering modern technology in the management of elections in Kenya. "If it works with a resounding success, we will look at the possibility of rolling it out countrywide. The greatest benefit will be in the integrity of the voters’ register. We are working with agencies such as the Registrar of Persons to ensure that there are no "dead voters" and double registration," says the IIEC ICT Director Dismas Ongondi, adding that they are exploring ways of transmitting and tallying results instantaneously. Geographic Positioning"IIEC, with the support of strategic partners, is also working on a geographic positioning system for mapping polling centres. The technology identifies the electoral units based on constituency rather than administrative boundaries," Ongondi added.Only recently, the US embassy donated 250 Blackberries to the IIEC. Speaking during the presentation of the gadgets at the IIEC offices, the US Charge d’Affaires Lee A. Brudvig said: "This is to ensure that the field personnel have telephone, SMS, and e-mail access to headquarters, and with each other from any location in Kenya. An added benefit is that with the built-in global positioning system, (GPS) in Blackberry, the IIEC staff will be able to accurately map out all registration and polling locations through the country."IIEC Commissioner Davis Chirchir said the technology would ensure efficient data transmission and tallying. "The 250 Blackberries will go to the 210 election coordinators, 17 regional coordinators and 17 managers who are on the ground. We have employed them on permanent terms to ensure professionalism and accountability," Chirchir said, adding the commission is in the process of GPS mapping, which would ensure that everyone, including the media, would be able to track polling stations in real time.But even as IIEC waxed confident about use of technology to curb electoral irregularities, it admitted that the defunct ECK had rolled out good infrastructure but failed to implement it to the end.Glaring AnomaliesThe ECK tallies had glaring anomalies as highlighted by the Johann Kreigler-led Independent Review Electoral Commission. It cited the National Referendum Evaluation workshop of March 2006, which concluded that to speed up the tallying process, the Commission should computerise its operations, which the ECK did in the run up to the 2007 General Election by purchasing 210 laptops. Interestingly, the laptops gathered dust only to be retrieved at the last minute, while officials complained that they had not been well trained to use them. So, is the IIEC prepared to walk the talk? "Yes," Ongondi said swiftly. "The 210 laptops bought by ECK were used in South Mugirango and Matuga by-elections. All the employees of IIEC, temporary and permanent are all computer-literate."Ongondi explained that IIEC hopes to develop systems that can transmit results from voting centres to the national tallying centres in real time, as happened in recent by-elections.

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