IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati addresses reports of 3,000 missing KIEMS kits

IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati was addressing concerns raised by Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, The Kenya Kwanza Presidential Campaign Secretariat and other stakeholders.

Chebukati said the allegations were misleading, explaining that the issue of missing devices raised in the Auditor General’s report was about BVR kits and not KIEMS kits.

“The Auditor General’s report referred to BVR kits and not KIEMS kits. BVR kits are used for voter registration and not voting.

“The commission procured 15,000 BVR kits in 2021 that have technically reached the end of life. The commission keeps an inventory of all kits and in the event of any loss the kit will be blocked from doing any transaction on the system,” he said.

Chebukati also denied claims that there were non-gazetted polling stations, putting the total number of polling stations in the country at 46,229.

“There are no ungazetted polling stations. All polling stations have been published vide a special issue of the Kenya Gazette No. 7996 carried in Vol. CXXIV-No. 130 and Kenya Gazette No. 88786 carried in Vol. CXXIV – No. 144 published on July 1 and July 26, 2022, respectively,” he clarified.

Additionally, Chebukati said that issues raised in the KPMG report regarding the integrity of the voter register had been addressed.

“The commission contracted KPMG to undertake an audit of the register of voters as part of providing assurance on completeness and accuracy of the register.

“The issues raised by the report were fully addressed by the commission prior to certification of the register of voters,” he explained.

The IEBC chair added that the voter register was made public in June and is available for public scrutiny upon payment of the required fees.