IEBC says that its polling clerks have been instructed not to keep this group of voters in the queue for long.
The Nairobi Regional Elections Coordinator (REC) Bilha Kiptugen said the commission was making special arrangements to ensure each of these voters is facilitated without any constraints.
“Our clerks have been instructed to identify voters with special needs such as disabled and the elderly and allow them to vote as soon as they arrive; they will not be kept in the queue unnecessarily,” Ms Kiptugen said.
She was speaking on Monday at a Nairobi hotel when she met 24 returning officers who will man the elections on Monday March 4. The 24 included two retuning officers for Nairobi and Kajiado counties and 22 from 17 constituencies in Nairobi and five in Kajiado.
Ms Kiptugen said the officers were ready to conduct a credible election saying polling will commence at six in the morning.
She urged voters to turn up in the polling station armed with their original identification cards (IDs) or passport that was used to register as a voter.
“We will not accept anyone to vote using an abstract or photocopy of ID,” the REC said.
The official said that all voters who will arrive at their respective polling station before 5pm would be allowed to cast their ballot even if that extends to the night but cautioned that those who come after 5pm will be turned away.
Ms Kiptugen said that every stream will have three clerks to serve one voter and four booths to ensure there are four people casting their ballot at any single time.
This is meant to address the long time, estimated to be eight minutes per voter, due to the six elective positions.
Meanwhile, the International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC) has urged IEBC to ensure that the use of technology to relay election results is tamper proof.
ICPC executive director Ndung’u Wainaina has warned than any failure or doubts about the credibility of the technology will cause political instability, as results will be disputed.
“There is a high risk of political instability if such technology malfunctions or generates distrust. We caution that this route might be less transparent with a high likelihood of human interference and error. This error may not be very easy to track or to fact check for accuracy,” Wainaina said.
Although IEBC has kept giving assurance, the ICPC boss says they are not fully convinced as already reports in the media indicate systems test failure.
“This is a very precarious exercise and highly vulnerable to human interference, which could easily lead to negative voter perceptions. All stakeholders must guard against complacency about electoral fraud,” he added
Wainaina said he was sounding alarm about the use of the technology since Kenya is hastily trying to use technology when the country is executing a high risk, most complicated and contested election in her history. -The Standard
