Technology changes face of Kenya elections

By Kiundu Waweru

The 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.