IEBC conducted a free and fair poll, says Ombudsman

The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) says the General Election was free and fair.

In a statement, Ombudsman Florence Kajuju commended the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for a job well done.

She said IEBC had addressed shortcomings that led to the nullification of the 2017 presidential elections.

"The CAJ finding is that the IEBC level of preparedness was satisfactory and generally, the elections were administered successfully," the statement read.

This, she said, was evidenced by the few incidents of KIEMs kits failure at identifications of voters and results transmission. Kajuju, however, said the commission noted some challenges that affected the polls.

She cited last-minute court rulings on various cases lodged against IEBC.

"This inhibited effective training of staff on voting systems. The courts had varying interpretations on the use of manual register as the High Court made a decision on August 8 followed by a Court of Appeal ruling on August 8," CAJ added.

The commission said security officials and IEBC were deployed far from their registration centres and hence denied a chance to vote.

"IEBC should establish a mechanism that would enable them to exercise their rights to vote," the commission said. It also decried the delayed identification of voters through the KIEMS kits noting that in some cases voters could not be identified through biometrics.