NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 8 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says it will comply with the Court of Appeal ruling on the use of the physical voters register only if the KIEMS kits fail.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati stated that “the manual register is usually used as a last resort, in case of failure of electronic gadgets at polling stations.”
A three-judge bench of the court gave the directive on Monday suspending an earlier High Court decision that allowed what appeared to be an unchecked use of the printed/manual register.
The appellate court decision arose from an urgent suit filed by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) which is fielding Deputy President William Ruto as its presidential candidate.
“Upon careful consideration of the appeal, we are of the view that appellant has made a case for the grant of the orders of a stay of the entire judgement delivered on August 4, 2022, pending the hearing and determination of the intended appeal,” Justices Fred Ochieng, Luka Kimaru and Paul Mwaniki Gachoka directed.
In the interim, the judges said IEBC can rely direction issued by the Supreme Court in the 2017 presidential petition by the National Super Alliance (NASA) when the court made a case for the use of technology to identify voter unless a complete failure of the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) is reported.
