It's all systems go as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission finalises preparations ahead of tomorrow’s General Election.
Already, the electoral commission has administered oaths of secrecy to Presiding and Deputy presiding officers, in readiness for the polls.
Commissioner Boya Mulu Sunday said training of all poll officials was concluded on Saturday.
“Right now they are just waiting to be deployed to their work stations. Deployment will be on Monday. We are just ticking boxes to confirm everything is okay,” she said.
Mulu added that staff have been properly informed on what is expected of them; from identification of voters through to technology and election laws and the recent court ruling on manual identification of voters.
“The system is in place ready to take off on Tuesday at 6am. If you are a voter, turn up very early in the morning and vote for the candidate of your choice and return home then wait for IEBC to do tabulation of results,” he said.
Mulu spoke at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi during a demonstration of the voting process.
A total of 46,229 polling stations will be open from 6am to 5pm for 22.1 million registered voters.
Kenyans will have the opportunity to elect the President, 47 county governors, 47 senators, 47 woman representatives, 290 members of Parliament and 1,450 county assembly members.
The commission led by chairman Wafula Chebukati demonstrated the voting process at a polling station.
Commissioners used the occasion to sensitise the public on what is required on voting day for voter identification and how to vote during the General Election.
During the stimulation, it emerged that it will take three minutes for a voter to cast the ballot after identification.
It will however take much longer for those who need extra help to vote.
Officials demonstrating the voting process noted that voters who mark papers wrongly will be required to raise the matter with the presiding officers.
“They will be given another ballot paper and they will vote. The spoilt ballot paper will be stamped and will not be put in the ballot box. We will record the serial number of spoilt paper and the replacement one as well. We must account for all papers,” an official said.
Some 150,000 police officers have been dispatched across the country to ensure the safety of the polls.
There are 16,098 candidates who are fighting for 1,882 seats up for grabs.
Results are due to be announced no later than August 16 from the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.
IEBC has indicated that some 500,000 personnel will oversee the exercise in what will be the biggest undertaking for the electoral body since the advent of multi-party democracy.
The commission has deployed 323,603 polling clerks, who will be tasked with the counting of votes.
Some 92,458 presiding officers and deputy presiding officers have also be deployed across the country as well as 94 county returning officers and deputy county returning officers.
Another 580 constituency returning officers and deputy constituency returning officers, 290 ICT clerks, 290 logistics officers in addition to the 5,827 support electoral trainers have also been dispatched.
The National Treasury allocated Sh44.6 billion to the electoral agency for election, making Kenyan polls one of the most expensive in the world.
Of the sum, Sh21.7 billion was allocated to the IEBC for the 2022-23 financial year while Sh22.9 billion was disbursed in the 2021-22 fiscal period.
The electoral commission contracted Postal Corporation of Kenya to distribute election materials throughout the country.
The corporation was contracted for an initial sum of Sh700 million, according to commissioner Francis Wanderi.
However, not all election materials were transported by road as some were airlifted in Wajir, Mandera, Lamu, Turkana and Marsabit counties.
There will be 8,700 backup Kiems kits, six for each of 1,450 wards. Some 55,100 kiems have been distributed countrywide.
However, IEBC agreed to use manual voter register at polling stations following a High Court order.
Chebukati last Thursday said printed copies will be made available in all polling stations across the country to compliment the electronic voter register.
Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition Party had been pushing to have a manual register incorporated in Tuesday’s polls.
More than 1,110 polling stations have no access to 3G or 4G networks with the electoral body. The commission has however said it will use satellite modems to ensure coverage.
Prisoners will also vote, but only in the presidential election. There are 10,443 prisoners registered to vote in the 2022 election.
Kamiti main prison has the highest number of registered prisoners with 724. By contrast, Kitui women prison and Busia women prison wing each have one.
Of the 290 constituencies, Ruiru has the highest number of registered voters, with 172,088. Lafey has the least with 18,564 voters.
At the polling station, the voter's identity will be checked biometrically using an electronic system that scans the fingerprint.
In case the process does not work, the commission will use the alphanumeric search- where the voter’s identification number will be scanned on its backside and use it to retrieve the true identity from the Kiems.
The retrieved information will then be used, by having the voters scan their fingers in again for a crosscheck of their details in the Kiems kit.
If a voter is not yet identified by the two methods then the commission will result to using the physical register and use the information from it to retrieve the voter’s data from the kits.
The biometric information in the kits is a replica of what is in the physical register.
Each voter receives six ballot papers, each a different colour, for each of the six different elections.
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