With about two weeks to the elections, another challenge has reared its head at the electoral commission, raising questions about the overall level of preparedness.
In what could throw a huge damper, the Ministry of Labour, which is in charge of safety at workplaces, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) are demanding an examination of the commission’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.
In correspondences seen by The Standard, the three agencies say the LPG cylinders pose a risk to safety and issued an order directing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to revalidate the cylinders before August 9.
The commission has 63,000 3kg LPG gas cylinders distributed across the more than 50,000 polling stations, constituency and county offices. The commission has hired more than 300,000 clerks to oversee the exercise in the polling stations and are likely to be affected by safety concerns raised by the agencies. Ordinarily, polling stations are opened at 5am on polling day. The gas lamps are lit at that time to assist voters mark their ballots and put off when the sun shines.
The lamps are also used to facilitate counting of votes in areas not connected to electricity, while also offering power backup in case of an outage. The IEBC procured the LPGs in 2007. While Section 70 (5) of the Occupational, Safety and Health Act requires that cylinders of non-corrosive gases, of which includes LPG, be examined and tested after every five years, the commission has not subjected its cylinders to this process.
Vote counting
KEBS requires that such cylinders be revalidated after every eight years. In a letter to IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan, the Ministry of Labour, through Dr Andrew Muruka, of the department of occupational, safety and health services, has directed the commission to re-validate the cylinders.
“The safety of the cylinders cannot be guaranteed,” Dr Muruka states in the letter dated July 6, 2022.
“You must ensure each and every cylinder in your use undergoes immediate examination and testing in accordance with provisions of the law to safeguard users and persons who may come into the vicinity of the said cylinders.”
Efforts to get a comment from the IEBC yesterday were unsuccessful as Mr Marjan did not respond to questions sent to his phone. The commission had also not responded to letters by the agencies. The warning by the ministry comes just days after an LPG explosion killed eight people along the Thika-Garissa highway. A highly placed source at the commission has revealed that the commission has in its budget Sh260m whose purpose is to re-validate the cylinders.
Despite availability of the funds, the commission is yet to re-validate the cylinders. However, the source insists that the commission is reluctant to undertake the exercise because most of the cylinders are mainly half full as only a small amount of gas is used during the election night.
“Only a small fraction of the gas is used on election night,” the source said.
Powerful people at the commission are said to have rebuffed suggestions to engage the National Oil Corporation to re-validate the cylinders on account of government to government arrangement. The concerns raised by the four agencies come at a critical time when the commission has advertised for a tender for testing, supply, delivery and refilling of the 3kgs gas cylinders. The three-year framework tender was issued on June 3 and awarded three weeks later on June 20.
Among other things the tender asked requesting for testing services and the supply for an extra 10,000 cylinders but PPRA says no details were provided for testing while there were no technical specification provided in the tender document. In a letter dated July 1 2022, PPRA opposed the award of the tender arguing that it was prepared in a hurry to beat the August 9 election timelines.
