Revealed: How IEBC will conduct Ol Kalou by-election

IEBC Commissioners Anne Nderitu and Noor Hassan Noor
inspect Ol Kalou ballot boxes on July 15 2026. [David Gichuru,Standard]

As Ol Kalou voters head to the polls on Thursday, July 16, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has announced that there will be no manual voter register.

All voters will be required to undergo electronic identification through the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits before casting their ballots.

As of Wednesday, the commission noted that it has finalised preparations for the fiercely contested by-election, with election materials arriving in Ol Kalou in the morning for inspection and certification ahead of polling day.

IEBC Commissioner Ann Nderitu, addressing the press, said polling stations will open at 6 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., with only voters already in the queue by the closing time allowed to cast their ballots.

Upon arrival at a polling station, voters will be required to present their national identity card or passport for verification.

Nderitu said voter identification will be conducted exclusively through KIEMS kits, with no manual register available.

Election officials will first carry out biometric and facial verification before issuing a ballot paper.

If both methods fail to identify a voter, officials will resort to alphanumeric identification by entering the voter's ID number into the KIEMS kit.

If the voter's details appear in the system, they will be required to pose for a photograph while holding their identification document before being cleared to vote.

However, if the voter's details do not appear in the KIEMS system, they will not be allowed to vote.

"There will be no manual register for identification. The KIEMS kit has worked and will work and we have backups in case any of them fail or slow down," Nderitu said.

"Ol Kalou will not be an exception. It has worked in previous by-elections and it will work in this one."

Once cleared, voters will cast their ballots in secret.

The commission has prohibited taking photographs of ballot papers or any election materials inside the polling booth.

After voting, voters will be required to leave the polling station immediately.

At 5 p.m., polling stations will close and vote counting will begin.

According to Nderitu, only accredited officials, agents, observers and members of the media will be allowed to witness the tallying process.

So far,  hundreds of police officers have been deployed to provide security across the constituency's 144 polling stations.