According to the Carter Center, the introduction of new technology into Kenya’s electoral administration has improved transparency.

In a preliminary report from an expert mission to Kenya’s August 9 presidential election, the Center said the Independent Electoral Boundary Commission (IEBC) was good at making sure the country’s polls were transparent and accountable. He says he has made progress.

Focusing on the use of electoral technology, the report said the mission had found “great progress in using technology to increase the transparency and verifiability of the electoral process.”

read: Kenya defends ‘un-African’ openness in electoral process

It also accuses the commission, led by Wahra Chebkati, of failing to actively educate voters about deploying technology to build public trust.

“The Commission also found that it did not do enough to help voters better understand the role of election technology in the preparation phase of the election. We missed an opportunity to increase public confidence in our process for testing equipment,” said the Carter Center.

a little support

The report also found that outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government and the country’s 12th parliament have done little to support the IEBC for the overall deployment of technology in elections, and electoral agencies points to missing targets due to timely spending. Insufficient funds, as well as delays in composing full fees.

“During most of the process, the IEBC’s overall ability to communicate how technology was used in elections was hampered by several factors. delays, the failure of Congress to approve funds in a timely manner, the delay in starting preparations, the absence of an IEBC Commissioner with an information technology background, and the legal issues that changed important processes late. It was included.

With the country’s president’s petition raising the issue of external interference in the IEBC’s system, this could not be substantiated by Azimio La Umoja, one Kenyan leader, Laila Odinga, who was contracted by the electoral body to In the Supreme Court after Smartmatic International BV refused to provide access on grounds of security concerns, the Carter Center report said the issue should be revisited for future elections. suggests.

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Data ownership

“Both cases raise important questions for consideration in the upcoming election cycle regarding ownership of data generated by electronic information collection systems, particularly as they relate to both the use of proprietary software and the processing of data. will,” the report said.

The Carter Center believes in the technology IEBC uses in elections and believes election agencies should subject their election technology to rigorous third-party scrutiny prior to voting.

It also recommends that IEBC’s results submission system can better protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability through open source software, modern digital signature schemes, and other cryptographic methods.

“IEBC intends to mitigate the risk of IEBC employees or contractors misusing access to IEBC databases to access or modify privileged information or prevent the proper functioning of our systems by: Such threats include supply chain attacks, which introduce malicious code into applications through security updates via third-party components,” reports said.

risk audit

“According to Carter Center calculations, the August 9, 2022 Election Risk Limits Audit will draw and inspect a sample of 909 votes and will be 99.9% certain that the results announced reflect the results of the vote. The adoption of audits, as recommended by the Carter Center in 2017, could help increase public confidence in the results.”

Regarding complaints filed before elections that Kenyans were registered as members of certain political parties without their consent, the report suggested Kenya should ratify the African Convention on Cybersecurity and the Protection of Personal Data. I’m here.