LSK names team to audit March 4 General Election

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Law Society of Kenya (LSK) chairman Eric Mutua. He said LSK wants to determine circumstances that led to the alleged failure of the technology system used for voter identification and transmission of results.   NATION MEDIA GROUP

By By DAVE OPIYO dopiyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, March 27  2013 at  12:58

IN SUMMARY

•  LSK Chairman Eric Mutua while announcing the team said “We want to determine circumstances that led to the alleged failure of the technology system used for voter identification and transmission of results,” Mutua said.

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The Law Society of Kenya has unveiled its nine-member committee that will conduct an audit of the March 4 General Election.

The committee will probe mass failure of electronic technology during the elections whose outcome has been challenged by Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the Supreme Court.

The electoral commission declared Jubilee Coalition's candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta, the winner of the presidential race after he managed 6,173,433 votes against Mr Odinga's 5,340,546.

The team includes Koki Muli, an expert in electoral laws, human rights lawyer Maina Kiai, Stephen Kiptinness and Alice Kingworm, experts in telecommunications law.

Others are governance expert George Kegoro, Kibe Mungai (election petitions and constitutional law) and Judith Guserwa (procurement law). Legal Scholar Prof Ben Sihanya and Ken Nyaundi –an expert in information communication technology and electoral law are also members.

LSK chairman Eric Mutua said: “We want to determine circumstances that led to the alleged failure of the technology system used for voter identification and transmission of results."

"LSK has a statutory mandate under Section Four of the LSK Act to protect and assist the public in all matters touching, ancillary or incidental to the law,” he said in a statement.

Mr Mutua said the team will establish whether the electronic gadgets used during the March 4 polls were legally acquired. It will determine circumstances that led to the failure of the electronic gadgets.

“We want to probe whether the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Voter Identification and Electronic Transmission Systems were properly procured and deployed,” Mr Mutua said.

“We are also interested in determining whether the software supplied for the electronic systems were compatible with IEBCs equipment, had warranties and necessary back up."

The team will have 45 days to complete its task.

The LSK chairman said that the professionals would also probe whether IEBC staff or any person by omission or commission was negligent or irresponsible for the system failure.

"We want to determine whether the failure to use the Electronic Voter Identification and Transmission Systems compromised integrity of the Presidential Elections,” Mr Mutua said.

The LSK chairman who said that other related matters would be probed said the professional body would make appropriate recommendations on concluding the determinations.

"The report should inform decisions to be taken in order to improve the electoral system and avoid similar occurrences in future as witnessed in the concluded polls,” he said.

He exuded confidence that findings of the Committee would include identifying those responsible for any acts of omission and commission during the General Elections.

The LSK had deployed 2,000 of its members, who are all advocates at the High Court, as election observers.

Shortly after the elections, the society released a preliminary report that pinpointed various alleged electoral malpractices.

Their report states that various candidates made statements amounting to hate speech and incitement.

The report also detailed massive failure of the electronic voter identification machines that resulted in the IEBC's using printed poll books.

The electronic results transmission system also experienced failures, leading to delays in the tallying of votes.