The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights wants repeat elections in three constituencies, Kilifi North, Kesses, and Changamwe saying polling was chaotic in those areas.
Speaking yesterday evening as voting closed, the commission recommended that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) take the drastic step to ensure that the will of the people is accurately reflected at the ballot.
In Kesses, there were no lids for the presidential ballot boxes and the boxes for the member of the National Assembly were missing, said KNCHR’s Deputy Commission Secretary Evelyn Samba. She said the lids were later improvised.
KNCHR has raised concern about the secure mobile phones provided by the IEBC to relay election results, saying some are not working, leaving returning officers to use ordinary SIM cards for the exercise and raising doubts on the security of the critical data.
The commission cited Kesses and Ainabkoi constituencies in Uasin Gishu County as the most affected, saying that the phones were giving error messages such as: “Username and password do not match” or “You have been suspended from the nerwtork.”
Similar cases were also said to have been noted by KNCHR election monitors at St Theresa’s Tallying Centre in Mathare, Nairobi.
“KNHRC is concerned about the safety and security of the data relayed in this method. It opens up the system for possible abuse,” said Mr Kamanda Mucheke, KNCHR’s senior human rights officer.
Vote counting
“The IEBC has to firmly take charge and correct the anomalies at this crucial stage. This includes conducting counting and tallying professionally and in a secure will-lit environment.”
The Commission expressed its disappointment over the IEBC letting some candidates get away with displaying campaign banners in areas near polling stations, or turning up to vote wearing party items, including former Juja MP William Kabogo.
KNCHR also raised concerns about lamps not working in some constituencies, including Kisumu Central, and said that this could have a negative effect on the counting of votes because it might result in anomalies such as vote stealing.
At the Manyata Car Wash and Kosawa Primary School centres in the constituency, voting was delayed until daybreak yesterday for this reason. However, the human rights body urged voters to remain calm during the counting and tallying period and maximise tolerance and peace despite the anomalies noted in some areas.
Human rights officer Lucas Kimathi said that there was general unpreparedness on the part of the electoral commission in terms of missing materials such as rubber stamps, ink, lids and ballot boxes as well security lapses, unprocedural plucking of ballot papers from booklets by IEBC clerks, name mix ups and late training of IEBCofficials. source: standard
