Kenya’s public have hit out at their country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), after its website went down following a surge of online applications for advertised clerk jobs.

The website’s downtime has also raised questions about the commission's ability to incorporate ICT in the 2013 presidential elections.

The IBEC announced 2, 900 vacancies to fill the positions of registration clerks who will be in-charge of biometric voter registration in 1, 450 county assembly wards across the country's 47 counties.

The IEBC asked applicants who qualify to fill an application form online at www.iebc.or.ke/careers before 29th July 2012.

Applicants for the biometric voter registration(BVR) clerks positions are expected to be computer literate.

“The clerks will ensure accurate entry of details in the voter registers using BVR equipment.” said IEBC in a statement.

Information about the vacancies was quickly spread on social networking sites leading to increased traffic to the website as job seekers tried to download application forms.

Several job-seekers expressed their frustrations online subjecting the IEBC to public ridicule . Some even asked the IEBC to hire them to upgrade its server.

Samwel Mwangi asked via Twitter: "@IEBC how do you tell us to apply online when u know that ua (your) servers can't handle the expected traffic?”

Thomas Mutahi via Twitter, said, “Advice to all who are applying for IEBC 2,900 Registration Clerks Jobs in Kenya, send you(r) Application via the Post Office.”

Following a flurry of complaints, the IEBC used its official Facebook and Twitter accounts to apologise for the failure.

“Oops our servers are overwhelmed by online applications for VR clerk jobs. Sorry but don't worry we are increasing the capacity. Meanwhile try, if you can, to log in at some less busy time- very early or late in the day,” said IEBC.

As of this afternoon, our efforts to access the website were unfruitful since we received a "server timed" or "page requested not available" response, despite the fact that the IEBC promised to update its servers yesterday.

The website breakdown has raised concerns on how the commission will be able to manage the expected high number of voters who will be seeking information on the voting process and outcome of the elections in 04 March 2013 via its website.

Some voters have compared the delays to that caused by the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) which handled the 2007 elections. Delays in announcing election results led to unrest and speculation which turned into the now infamous post election violence claiming 1,300 lives.

Robert Kipsang asked via Facebook, “Are these the kind of delays u will use 2 (to) rig elections?”

The IEBC has said it plans to release the presidential results within 48 hours to avoid the 2007 delays. The commission chief executive James Oswago recently said they would use hackers to test the reliability of some of its systems as it prepares for the elections which is poised to be the most technology dependent in history.

“We are confident that our system is tamper-proof. However, sometime in November we will invite those who think they can hack into the system to do it. We want Kenyans to have confidence in the system,” said IEBC chief executive James Oswago.