Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula
Chebukati addressing the media on August 2, 2017. The IEBC conducted a
test run for the KIEMS elections system on August 2, 2017. PHOTO |
FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The system to be used in identifying voters and sending results
was successfully tested on Wednesday as the election commission
demonstrated the steps it has taken to protect votes from hacking.
IEBC
demonstrated its Kenya Integrated Elections Management Systems (KIEMS) –
which will be used for biometric identification of voters and
electronic results transmission – and said it had sealed all loopholes
which could be used to breach it.
This was made public
during a test of the electronic results transmission system from the 47
counties in an exercise that included live links of the process in
Nakuru, Kisumu and Mombasa.
“On Tuesday, when Kenyans
vote, results will be coming live from all the 40,883 polling stations
and displayed concurrently at Bomas, and the other 337 tallying centres
with no human intervention,” IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba said.
POLLING STATIONS
He
told the media: “For you, that means you can choose to be at Bomas, in
your office or anywhere else and still have full access to all the
results from all the polling stations.”
The Court of Appeal last month ruled that IEBC cannot change results as declared at polling stations.
This
means that when presidential election results, which will be counted
first before the five other elective seats, are declared at any of the
polling stations in Kenya, Kenyans will have real time access and can
tally for themselves as counting progresses.
This,
the commission believes, will be the first safeguard against what is
usually a long wait for the polling station results to trickle into
constituencies, be tallied, read at the national tallying centre, before
a final result emerges.
Further, the commission has
made it mandatory for the transmitted results to be accompanied by the
scanned results declaration forms that must be signed by all agents at
the polling station.
The kit
has been configured not to allow the “submit button” to work until the
form, and the individual results for all candidates, have been keyed in.
Even then, the IEBC has put another safeguard.
SCANNED DOCUMENT
“The primary document, and what we will use as final result, is the scanned document.
If the results in the scanned document is different from the
alpha-numeric data, the ones in the scanned document prevails,” IEBC
chairman Wafula Chebukati said of the results.
Every
three hours, the KIEMS kits will automatically provide periodic updates
to a central, secret server, and whose final tally must match those of
the submitted results.
Any discrepancy will be rejected and will not be transmitted.
Similarly,
the IEBC has also made all its 360,000 temporary staff, who will act as
polling clerks and presiding officers- and who were all sworn in
yesterday, to send three-hour updates of the ballots handed out, which
must also match with those identified by the kits, and the final result.
Their work will make-or-break the elections as theirs will be the first and final result, right at the polling station.
In an election that has largely hinged on the success of the KIEMS, the successful test run was a major relief for the IEBC.
Those
present on Wednesday were shown live from the stations
successful transmission of mock results from Nakuru, Mombasa, and Kisumu
counties tallying centres, while the other counties streamed in live
after the first three.
MISTAKES
Wednesday’s
exercise is part of the IEBC’s attempts to beat its mistakes in 2013,
where though the results transmission kits worked for some time, they
crashed on Day Two and after they had inexplicably multiplied rejected
votes by eight.
The commission
has partnered with Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya and zoned the
country into three depending on each of the three mobile service
provider’s strengths to ensure maximum capability of the kits to
transmit the results.
The
Communication Authority of Kenya has also been enjoined to ensure
“quality and secure network” for the IEBC, as well as manage use of
satellite technology.
The
IEBC has provided satellite technology in all its 338 tallying centres,
290 at constituency level, 47 county and the National one at Bomas.
“The
IEBC has provided its own independent equipment and servers, on both
ends of the transmission process. The IEBC remains wholly responsible
and in charge of operationalisation and security of its equipment during
this time,” said Mr Chebukati in a joint statement.
TRANSMIT RESULTS
Mr
Chebukati said that the IEBC will not transmit results of 33 electoral
areas using the KIEMS system, after late delivery of court judgments
that he said came after the candidates list had been generated.
The kit also transmits results of candidates in the system.
Meanwhile,
the commission, he said, will reprint ballot papers for Kirinyaga
senate, Embu governorship, and East Asembo ward due to court rulings,
saying, however, that they will be ready before Tuesday.
At the Bomas event, the IEBC observed a two one-minute moment of silence for its murdered employee, Chris Msando.
Mr Msando, who was the head of data and infrastructure at IEBC, was murdered on Saturday by unknown people.
POSTPONED
Wednesday’s test was supposed to be on Monday but was postponed after the discovery of his body at City Mortuary.
Wednesday’s test was supposed to be on Monday but was postponed after the discovery of his body at City Mortuary.
“We are ready to give Kenyans a free, fair and credible election,” a confident Mr Chebukati said in his opening remarks.
In
Mombasa, County deputy returning officer Amina Soud confirmed the
tests were 100 per cent successful at Bandari College, Mombasa.
“We have submitted the specimen results and it was 100 per cent successful,” she said.
In
Kisumu, County returning officer John Cox Lorionokou was confident that
the county is well prepared to manage the General Election next
Tuesday.
—Additional reports by Victor Rabala, Abigael Ruto and Hilda Anyango
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