Safaricom will not transmit election data for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) during the approaching Makueni by-election, saying flaws in the system procured by the IEBC had not yet been fixed.
According to the Daily Nation Safaricom said there were still doubts over the system’s functionality just weeks from the July 22 by-election, leading to its decision to withdraw. This decision has since been confirmed to HumanIPO by Safaricom chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Collymore.
One of the doubts arose as the IEBC was yet to test the system, even after the telecom asked for a test be completed to prove transmissions would serve at least 80 per cent of the polling stations.
Other issues raised by Safaricom included the capacity by the IEBC servers to handle the massive amounts of data transmitted without crashing, as well as ensure the servers were tamper-proof. The competence of the IEBC staff was also questioned.
In response, the IEBC has said the lack of a simulation to test the system was a result of “unavoidable circumstances”.
The Daily Nation further reports the commission’s phones are yet to be configured to align to the system and the staff are yet to receive any training, including the presiding officers.
The March 2013 general election was marked by system failures, which led to questions over the credibility of the results, with CORD presidential aspirant Raila Odinga demanding an audit of the system while arguing his case at the Supreme Court, a request that was thrown out.
IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan had also been forced to jump to Safaricom’s defence as questions arose over the telecom’s role in the transmission of the results.
Safaricom’s withdrawal is a new blow to the IEBC’s credibility, as a new opinion poll released by Infotrack research indicated the commission had credibility with just 44 per cent of Kenyans, with another 57 per cent expecting favouritism.
