IEBC to staff: Jail awaits if you bungle August 8 polls

The electoral commission has warned all its staff that they will face prosecution if they abet fraud or sabotage during the August 8 elections.

Unlike in the past, when electoral mistakes largely went unpunished and only constituted election disputes in court, the commission now says errant officers will be punished severely under the Election Offences Act.

"Unlike in 2013, this year the law requires that errant officers be held individually criminally liable for their actions," said Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) Commissioner Roselyn Akombe.

Dr Akombe said following the enactment of the law, the more than 360,000 electoral officials who have been trained in conducting the polls will be put under oath.

Among those who will be in the limelight are presiding officers who are required to update their respective returning officers on the number of ballot papers they have issued at three-hour intervals.

Three hours

"After every three hours, the presiding officer will furnish the returning officer with the number of ballot papers issued, which must be consistent with the voter turnout," Akombe said.

She was speaking at a breakfast meeting convened by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) under the 'MKenya Daima' initiative that brought together the Judiciary and IEBC to update the country on election preparedness.

Akombe used the opportunity to assure the country that the commission had put in place safeguards to ensure that the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) would not break down on election day.

The commission says the kits indicated 98 per cent accuracy during their one-month deployment in the voter verification exercise, indicating their readiness.

"We expect less than 5 per cent of Kenyans might fail to be identified biometrically. When this happens, there are procedures to invoke a complementary mechanism," Akombe said.

"We will monitor how the kits work and be able to detect any mischief. For instance, if the turn-out is consistent during the day and then we suddenly see a high turnout as polling closes, we shall detect it and ask questions."

Printed register

The commission says for voters whose details are not found in the KIEMS, a printed register will be available and Form 32a filled in the presence of all party agents.

Also available will be printed voter registers at all the polling stations a week before Election Day. A simulation exercise to test the transmission of results will be conducted next Monday.

"We would have wanted to do it earlier but most of the stations are schools, which still are open. However, the same register is in all 290 constituency headquarters and also online, and can be obtained by sending text message," said Akombe.

The commission is currently training electoral officials who will handle KIEMS and has already dispatched more than 20,000 kits to the field.

The rest will be dispatched over the next one week to allow officials time to get familiar with them.