Blow to IEBC as court declares scraping of manual register unconstitutional

By , K24 Digital
On Thu, 4 Aug, 2022 09:36 | 2 mins read
IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati attends prayer service with the clery at Bomas on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. PHOTO/IEBC/Twitter
IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati attends prayer service with the clery at Bomas on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. PHOTO/IEBC/Twitter

The High Court on Thursday, August 4 declared the decision by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to scrap the use of the manual voters’ register in every polling station in the upcoming polls unconstitutional.

Justice Mugure Thande quashed the electoral commission and its Chairman Wafula Chebukati's decision of June 10 not to use manual voter register on grounds that they acted outside the parameters of the law and the constitution.

"A declaration is hereby issued that the decision of IEBC and Chebukati signified under a letter dated June 10, 2022 stating that the commission shall not use the manual register of voters in the general election of Tuesday next week is unconstitutional and the said decision is hereby quashed, " Justice Thande ruled.

While overturning the IEBC decision, the judge stated that lEBC and Chebukati have the constitutional mandate to take all necessary logical steps to ensure that all citizens' rights under Article 38 as well as Article 33 of the Constitution of Kenya.

"And a declaration is hereby issued that the IEBC has a constitutional mandate to take all necessary measures that administrative arrangements for the registration of voters and conduct of the election including the identification of voters during Tuesday's elections are designed to facilitate and not deny an eligible citizen the right to vote in the election," she ordered.

The decision comes after civil rights groups moved to court to challenge the decision by IEBC to abandon the physical voter register saying the Commission is facing the same technological and network problems that it faced in the 2013 and 2017 general elections.

They accused the polls agency of setting itself up for a massive failure by conducting elections without a physical voter register since some voters are likely to be locked out should the electronic system fail to function.

This is because for the electronic register, popularly known as the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits, to function there must be reliable and stable internet connectivity.

The kits are used to identify a voter’s bio data at the polling station using either the fingerprint or the alphanumeric search.

The petitioners in the matter are the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Katiba Institute, Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Haki Yetu, Inuka Kenya Ni Sisi Limited, and Africa Centre for Governance, Constitution and Reform Education Consortium.

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