The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is yet to inspire public confidence in its ability to manage free and fair elections.
The agency messed up the presidential elections in 2013 and 2017, with each case ending up at the Supreme Court. The past has not taught the IEBC anything. The call for a simple and veritable process does not matter for IEBC.
The IEBC has the constitutional mandate to supervise free and fair elections, but it remains the weakest link in the process.
The official supervisor of elections is behaving like it is beholden to vested interests. The IEBC continues to defy other vetting agencies, including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The IEBC has defied advice to bar tagged suspects from running for election. The National Integrity Alliance, a civil society consortium, also made the integrity push. But the IEBC claims it has no capacity to stop corruption suspects from running.
The Johnson Sakaja degree roller-coaster further exposes the IEBC's determination to muddle vetting. The IEBC has also fallen far short of being the integrity police.
A university degree is a constitutional requirement for governor aspirants. The IEBC cleared Sakaja to run, saying it has no capacity to determine the validity of a degree certificate.
The Commission for University Education has invalidated the fraudulent degree certificate from Uganda's Team University. The university has also confirmed the senator was not among its graduates in 2016. The IEBC has dismissed CUE's letter revoking Sakaja's degree.
Apart from abetting impunity, the IEBC is laying the ground for a gubernatorial by-election in Nairobi should the senator win. It has ignored doubts about the Nairobi senator's eligibility to run for governor.
The agency has allowed people of questionable integrity and education to run for election. Because of the indifference, incompetence, or compromise, murder suspects, felons, rapists, robbers, economic saboteurs, money launderers, embezzlers of public funds, fraudsters, land-grabbers, and merchandisers of hate are on the ballot.
The IEBC is undermining its credibility on other fronts as well: Why, for instance, is the agency engaging the public in superfluous arguments about electronic register and manual roll?
The law recognises the complementarity of the digital and manual register. The manual register would be used should the digital register fail. The IEBC has not convinced the public it's ready to manage the electoral process, without the complement.
Chris Msando, a diligent IEBC electoral manager, was assassinated on the eve of the 2017 general election. The paymasters of the perpetrators wanted the 'password' to the IEBC servers.
Electoral technology was failed to aid the rigging of the election. Hackers ensured forced election of politically correct candidates, each scoring a constant 54 percent vote to win their seats.
The electronic register has failed before, and so has the election results relaying technology. No amount of assurance from the IEBC can convince cynics that technology will not fail on August 9.
Conspiracies to hack the IEBC electoral servers are trending. One such piece of information incriminates vested interests in Uganda, where a parallel tallying centre and a hackers' haven are claimed to have been set up.
Another trending piece of information mentions a former IEBC employee in the plot to tamper with electoral technology. Then there are claims of partisan infiltration of IEBC, a supposedly independent umpire of democracy.
Competent authorities should investigate these documented claims to protect the electoral process from hackers, and partisan intrusion.
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