AG Kihara Kariuki backs push for manual register

Attorney-General Paul Kihara Kariuki. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Attorney General Kihara Kariuki has backed efforts to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to use both electronic and manual registers to identify voters during next month's elections.

In his submissions in the High Court, the AG faulted IEBC's position that it will only use the electronic voter identification kits which, according to Mr Kihara, will cause problems in case they fail.

"It is our humble and considered opinion that the decision by the first and second respondents (IEBC and Wafula Chebukati) to completely avoid the use of printed/manual register as a complimentary system provided for under section 44 A of the Election Act is a move that goes to offend the spirit of the constitution as well as the letter of the same,” AG’s lawyer Dan Weche told Justice Anthony Mrima.

The chief government legal advisor has taken the same position as Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance, while IEBC and Kenya Kwanza want the exercise restricted to electronic kits.

The AG was responding to a case filed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Katiba Institute, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya), Haki Yetu, Inuka Kenya ni Sisi, Africa Centre For Open Governance, and Constitution and Reform Education Consortium.

Mr Kihara said the Supreme Court, in 2017, found that the technology adopted by IEBC is yet to achieve reliability to be considered as an irreversible foundation of an electoral process.

He also relied on a Court of Appeal finding that the use of the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) kits during an election without a physical register is discriminatory to persons whose biometrics cannot be picked.

According to him, although the law does not define what a complementary system in an election is, the fallback should be manual registers.

At the same time, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights also urged the court to force IEBC to use both registers. The commission's CEO Bernard Mogesa said IEBC has ignored the fact that its technology can fail.

Lawyer Fidelis Limo, who represents the lobby groups, argued that IEBC has failed to comply with the 2017 Supreme Court judgment requiring it to ensure all polling stations are connected to a 3G/4G network.