• There will be a server for the media, political parties, the candidates and the public.
• Servers will be hosted in the country if the National Assembly approves the draft Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021.
Image: CHARLENE MALWA
The electoral agency is planning to deploy multiple servers for transmission of results to the tallying centres during next year's general election.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati said various stakeholders, among them the media, will be granted access to the servers to enhance transparency, accuracy and verification of results.
During the hearing of the 2017 presidential election petition at the Supreme Court, the IEBC declined to open its servers despite court orders.
The failure by the IEBC to open the servers was among the reasons the Supreme Court nullified the August 8, 2017, presidential election results.
On Tuesday, Chebukati said the move to acquire multiple servers seeks to put to rest the suspicions levelled against the Results Transmission System in the past.
"We will have multiple servers. If possible, there will be a server for the media, political parties, the candidates and the public. The issue of having one server will not be there in 2022," Chebukati said.
The commission will bring on board the Communication Authority to identify areas that do not have adequate coverage by 3G network before the polls.
“This will be critical to planning for alternative technologies for transmission of election results. I am happy to inform you that the Communications Authority and the commission have established a joint technical committee to address matters relating to communication network coverage,” Chebukati said.
Chebukati spoke at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi during the launch of IEBC's 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, the Boundaries Review Strategic Plan and the Election Operation Plan.
He reiterated that multiple servers will enhance promptness in election results management.
Results are normally electronically transmitted to tallying centres and physically delivered to the returning officers for collation and declaration.
During the petition in 2017, the Supreme Court said IEBC's refusal to comply with the order to grant access to its electronic voting system led the court to accept claims by the Opposition that the computer system had been infiltrated and compromised and the data interfered with, or that the IEBC officials interfered with the system themselves.
The electoral commission however disputed that its system was tampered with.
Election data and transmission servers will be hosted in the country if the National Assembly approves the draft Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 proposed by ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru.
Previously, the electoral agency has had its servers maintained in France by OT Morpho.
OT Morpho, a French company that supplied IEBC with the Kenya Integrated Election Management System used in the 2013 and 2017 elections, hosted the IEBC servers in France.
Chebukati added that to address the untimely and inadequate budgetary allocation to the commission by the National Treasury, they have persistently advocated for the operationalisation of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Fund as provided for in Section 18 of the IEBC Act No. 9 of 2011.
“Financing the commission under the fund model, as the case in South Africa and India among other jurisdictions, will accord the commission the much-needed financial autonomy to timely and adequate financing of its programmes and operations,” he said.