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Complimentary voting mechanism for Kenyans with poor biometrics: IEBC

By , ITWeb
Kenya , 06 Aug 2017

Complimentary voting mechanism for Kenyans with poor biometrics: IEBC

Any voter not identified using biometrics will be considered for a complimentary mechanism of voting.

This is according to a recent statement by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya, reminding Kenyans that identification of voters will be done through biometrics.

As reported by CIO East Africa, the statement, signed by the commission's chairman, Wafula Chebukati, notes, "There are 5227 Kenyans with poor biometrics and this information has been provided to respective returning officers. Any voter that is not identified using biometrics will be considered for a complimentary mechanism of voting and will need to fill form 32A."

The commission further assured Kenyans that Kenya Integrated Election Management Systems (KIEMS) gadgets had been deployed to all constituencies.

On 2 August 2017, the commission successfully simulated the transmission of results from 47 counties in the country.

Chebukati said it was important to note that while all efforts had been made to train all the staff on the KIEMS, there is a possibility of inconsistencies between the keyed in results transmitted by officers and the scanned forms transmitted.

He urged Kenyans to await the official announcement from the commission that will be based on the scanned forms.

IEBC also announced that training of all clerks, presiding and deputy presiding officers for the general election had been completed, with the distribution of election materials expected to be completed today, 7 August 2017.

Slated for Tuesday 8th August 2017, this will be the second election held after the promulgation of Kenya's Constitution and will see 19 611 423 Kenyans cast their votes.

According to CIO, the IEBC has also said 11 155 out of 40 883 polling stations are out of 3G and 4G network coverage throughout 45 counties. So far the commission has provided satellite devices in all the 290 constituency tallying centres across the country.

As said in the statement, Kisii County has the highest number of affected polling stations at 922 followed by Muranga County that has 916 affected stations and Homa Bay has 892 stations without reliable network access.

Siaya, Kisumu, Busia, Migori County have 775, 579, 641 and 528 stations respectively. Vihiga County has 440 stations likely to have transmission challenges over network inefficiency while Baringo, Nyeri, Mandera and Turkana County have 378, 428, 329 and 468 stations in that order.

The IEBC also stated that it has put in place rightful measures to ensure the whole election process runs smoothly. This, in turn, will see presiding officers move for better signal or use satellite phones to transmit results.

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