Issues raised about the voters' register demand urgent action

A report by audit firm KPMG on the voters’ register is worrying. The credibility of the forthcoming August elections hangs in the balance if outstanding issues that have caused so much rancour remain unresolved.

Much revolves around the printing of the presidential ballot papers whose initial tender to Dubai firm Al Ghurair was stopped by the High Court following a petition by the Opposition NASA, challenging the tender award to the company.

Another contentious issue is the inability by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to publish the final register in accordance with constitutional requirements. While KPMG’s audit revealed the existence of dead voters, IEBC moved to expunge 88,602 names from the register.

That, however, did not allay growing fears that dead voters could still end up voting, somehow. That fear is not without basis, because IEBC finally admitted it could not vouch for a clean register after it was proved many dead people’s names were still on the register when confirmation of voter details was sent to the number 70000 provided by IEBC.

The KPMG report also said IEBC’s database was not secure because there was no security configuration to guarantee the safety of data.

Two incidents; the temporary paralysis of telco giant Safaricom’s network and the spread of the Ransomware computer virus in Europe, early this year, point to the vulnerability of technology and, secondly, the need for stepping up security measures on computer-based systems.

The IEBC is said to have two active administrator accounts whose default passwords have not been changed. Why have two accounts when they can easily be interfered with to change or delete data?

The absence of a remote storage site in the event of a systems failure, transfer of files on flash disks, double registration by some people using their passports and ID cards, and missing details of 502,409 voters are not guarantees of a free, fair and credible election.

The tragedy is that IEBC appears to be moving around in a daze, yet the hopes and expectations of Kenyans for peaceful polls rest on its shoulders.