Alarm as 200 polls Kiems kits not in IEBC custody

At least 200 Kiems kits used in the management of elections could be in the wrong hands, a new report has shown.

An audit says the machines were not returned to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission head office after the 2017 and 2022 general election.

The commission’s policy is that after conclusion of elections, Kiems kits and related accessories should be returned to the central warehouse.

They are supposed to be taken to the storage facility along Likoni Road, Nairobi where they are also maintained.

However, from the audit, it emerged that only two Kenya Integrated Elections Management System kits were reported as lost.

Thirty others, details show, were burned in Wajir following chaos at a tallying centre in 2022.

Another 159 were dispatched for various by-elections but were not returned to the technology centre.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has in the review for the period to June 30, 2024, cast doubt that the kits would be recovered. Kiems kits are used to identify voters at a polling station.

They are also loaded with results transmission system software and are able to access registered voters’ bio-data.

IEBC says its hands are tied in tracing the devices, which have the potential of coming handy for fellows out to rig elections.

The commission reported that it couldn’t implement a standard operating procedure for the kits movement and management.

The document was undergoing internal reviews but cannot be used since there are no commissioners to approve it.

“In the circumstances, the effectiveness of internal controls for Kiems kits management could not be confirmed,” Gathungu said, further highlighting deficiency in the commission’s governance system.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga rejected the use of Kiems kits in the 2022 general election insisting on a manual process.

This was after IEBC maintained that it wouldn’t print manual registers for verifying voters.

A court ruled against the commission and held that the insistence on a pure electronic voter identification process was flawed.

IEBC procured 59,100 Kiems kits between 2017 and 2022 but only 55,286 are left, setting back taxpayers by nearly 4,000 pieces.

In the period to June 2023, 256 Kiems kits, which were held in Nyeri were yet to be returned to the headquarters.

The commission lost another five kits during the period (2023) while another 158 had also been lost previously.

At least 3,400 kits were found to be faulty, but their condition had not been updated in the asset registers.

Audit has cast the spotlight on number of election materials in the wrong hands.