The IT infrastructure deployed during Kenya's nullified presidential election will be used again in the upcoming rerun.

This has been confirmed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which stated it will apply world standards to the transmission of results and ensure transparency.

According to a statement by the Commission, "The Commission's Plenary resolved that due to time constraints before the fresh presidential election, the commission will continue to manage the ICT/KIEMS system, implemented by OT-Morpho/Safran."

The regulatory body said it will also add infrastructure to ensure the integrity of the process.

"The commission will use both a cloud server and a backup platform. Nonetheless the ICT infrastructure and protocols will adhere to international best practice."

The IEBC said that ICT experts from the Commonwealth, the United Nations and from the two competing political parties will be assimilated into its ICT department.

IEBC will also outsource an independent IT auditor to conduct a penetration test on the systems, something not done prior to the August election as uncovered by the Supreme Court during the election petition.

The regulator added that it will extend an exclusive contract to Safaricom to support the relay of results.

In August, the Commission utilised the services of three telecom companies to assist in the transmission of results from polling stations across the country.

"The Commission notes that M/S Safaricom Ltd has a wide network coverage country wide and such M/S Safaricom Ltd will be requested to deploy KIEMS kit table SIM cards in all the 40,883 polling stations across the country," stated the Commission.

However, this decision has been challenged by the opposition who accused the telco of being a key player in subverting the August elections and have stated their intention to pursue legal action against the company.

Moreover the opposition has organised a country-wide protest against the Commission to lobby for changes to the system, including reconstructing the ICT department that is understood to have failed to offer sufficient IT support for the relay system.

According to a leaked memo from the IEBC, Chairman Wafula Chebukati ordered the IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba to suspend three personnel from the ICT department for misconduct, including faking the Chairman's account on the IEBC servers.