Nairobi — Kenya Human Rights Commission is suing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over its decision to drop the use of a manual register of voters as a complementary voter identification system during the August 9 polls.
KHRC argues the decision threatens to lock out many eligible voters in the exercise should the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) fail.
The lobby pointed out that the electoral agency has a duty to facilitate and not deny any eligible citizen the right to vote. The commission termed IEBC's decision as unlawful.
"The decision of the Commission to strictly rely on the KIEMS as the only mode of voter identification is not only in violation of Statute but also susceptible to massive failure which can lead to ultimate postponement of the general elections on Tuesday 9th August 2022," the petition filed on Tuesday reads in part.
The petition is backed by six other civil society organizations including the Katiba Institute, the Kenyan section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)-Kenya, Haki Yetu, Inuka Kenya Ni Sisi Ltd, Africa Centre for Open Governance Constitution and Reform and Education Consortium and has named Wafula Chebukati and IEBC as respondents and Communication Authority of Kenya and Crawn Trust as interested parties.
The petitioners further argued that the KIEMS must be functional with reliable and stable internet connectivity for it to be able to load the register of voters; and then proceed to identify a voter's bio data at the polling station using either the fingerprint or the alphanumeric search.
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"The issues affecting KIEMS kit go beyond the availability of network connectivity," they said.
They further argued that no measures have been taken by the electoral agency to guarantee that there is a working and reliable 3G/4G network connectivity, and that technology shall not fail in all the polling stations.
"It is only fair and just that this Petition be heard and determined as a matter of urgency and the orders sought issued to guarantee the right of registered voters to participate in the general elections," the petitioners said.
One of the prayers of that the petitioners are seeking is "AN ORDER OF DECLARATION that the 1st and 2nd Respondents have a Constitutional mandate to take all the necessary and logical steps to ensure that administrative arrangements for the registration of voters and the conduct of elections, including the identification of voters during the August 2022 election is designed to facilitate, and not deny, an eligible citizen the right to vote in the election."
On Monday, the IEBC said that the decision not to use the printed register of voters was based was on the findings of the Post-Election Evaluation report for the 2017 General Election and fresh presidential elections which had established that the use of the printed register of voters provided an avenue for misuse during the voting process.
Latest data shows that the total number of registered voters in the country is 22,120,458 while the number of polling stations stand at 46,232.
