In a press conference on Tuesday, IEBC commissioner Justus Nyang’aya denied reports of widespread KIEMS kit failure, saying the isolated cases were due to normal technological breakdown.
By the time the IEBC provided an update at around 1PM on Tuesday, only 200 kits had been reported to have malfunctioned.
“What we have received and addressed is about 200 failure of KIEMS kits out of 46,229 kits, this is not a widespread break down,” Nyanga’aya told the media. “Technology breaks down and when it does we have ways of how we address this, which we have already done, I think this is a normal thing what is happening
According to Nyang’aya, the IEBC anticipates that some of the kits will fail, but this does not imply that the errors are widespread.
During the same press conference, IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera discussed the status of polls across the country.
According to Ms Cherera, when the kits fail, ICT officers are dispatched to investigate the cause, after which the returning officer may e-mail the IEBC to request permission to use the manual register.
Early Tuesday, presidential contender George Wajackoyah was among voters who were forced to wait after kits at the Indangalasia Primary School polling station went belly up.
Addressing the press at Indangalasia Primary School, the presidential hopeful said he was disappointed and criticised IEBC for the failure.
“I am a disappointed man because all my competitors have voted; I am told Raila voted, Mwaure has already voted. I just spoke with him to congratulate him, and Ruto has voted. So why only me? Why Kakamega County? Why didn’t they test the kits?… I don’t know what to say,” he said.
Prof. Wajackoyah further termed Kakamega as one of his main voter strongholds, saying the delay was robbing him of significant support for his bid. “I am not an engineer and if they tell me the kits are not working, then I listen to them. I have lost millions of votes, Kakamega is one of my strongholds,” he added.
