• At least 45,000 Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System kits were procured for the 2017 general election at Sh6.8 billion.
• Kenya arguably has the biggest investment in election technology in the East and Central African region
Image: FILE
The Auditor general has unearthed the disappearance of critical election technology equipment that includes Biometric Voter Registration kits, and laptops.
These revelations come even as the electoral commission intensifies preparations for the August 9 poll.
In a report dated March 14, 2022 and tabled in the National Assembly, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu revealed that 3,925 BVR were missing as well as seven Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System kits.
The report further revealed 392 laptops , 1,315 hard disks, 116 fingerprint scanners, 408 webcams, 1,062 USB hubs, 104 chargers and 8,041 flash disks were missing.
It is not known the extent to which the missing critical election equipment would impact the identification of voters and transmission of election results on August 9.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission procured 45,000 Kiems kits for the 2017 general election at Sh6.8 billion.
However, the kits failed on Election Day, which was among the reasons the Supreme Court nullified the presidential election.
The auditor said a status report as of June 2021 showed only 44,993 kits existed, resulting in the unexplained variance of seven.
“In addition, the status report indicated some of the kits had missing components, damaged components and had not been tested for functionality,” Gathungu said in her review of IEBC's books of account as of June 30, 2021.
On BVR kits, the commission procured 15,000 at Sh4.6 billion in the run-up to the 2013 general election but data at the commission showed only 11,075 were available.
“The BVR kits status report as of June 30, 2021, showed that there were a total of 2,435 kits with various faults,” Gathungu said.
She said the events revealed the IEBC has no proper controls to ensure the security of the election equipment.
“In the circumstances, evidence of the existence of effective internal controls, including security on assets, could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.
The audit report has emerged at a time the IEBC is at the height of procuring technology for the August 9 general election.
Election experts say the development elicits concerns about not only the cost taxpayers would bear to replace the kits but also the privacy of the data in them.
Mule Musau, Elections Observer Group National Coordinator, said the report of missing kits begs the question of the security of strategic election materials.
“Any loss of the equipment is a considerable loss to the taxpayer. What do they (IEBC) mean when they say they don’t have them? Where are they? And if they are lost, what can be compromised by that loss?” Musau asked.
He said the audit findings have dealt a blow to the image of the IEBC.
“They may argue they requested a budget to audit the equipment but that doesn’t mean they have to be careless. How then do we trust the IEBC with the security of such strategic election material?”
He argued that since Kiems kits have personal data of voters, there is a major concern about where that data is and the privacy of the information stored by IEBC.
“The gadgets have the memory of voter data and even results as they were used to transmit results.”
Kenya is arguably having the biggest investment in election technology in the East and Central African region, which is a big factor in election-related procurement.
There are also concerns the technology may not match up to the cost incurred on the investment, having failed in both the 2013 and 2017 general elections.
The commission intends to buy about 10,000 kits and upgrade its election database amid expectations that the number of polling stations for the August vote would increase to 53,000.
Tender documents show the electoral agency requires 55,000 tablets for the August vote, to be connected to a backend system for processing results.
In 2017, results from 11,155 polling stations were not streamed for lack of 3G network and technological hitches.
IEBC now wants manual results prioritised, indicating their jitters with over-reliance on technology in the management of elections.
Kiems procurement for the August vote was challenged before the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board which ruled that the commission continues with the purchases.
But the same was challenged at the High Court before Justice Jairus Ngaah.
The IEBC, however, said it would proceed with the process as no injunctions have been issued so far.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)