The chairman of Kenya’s Law Society (KLS) says his organization has established a committee to investigate the East African country’s disputed March 4 general election.
The committee, says chairman Eric Mutua, will examine what he described as the mass failure of electronic technology during the elections administered by the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC).
He says the investigating committee will determine the circumstances that led to the reported failure of the technology system used to identify voters and transmit the vote count back to election headquarters.
"The committee has the mandate to look at the entire electoral system. [It] will look at what could have gone wrong, including the question of the failure of the electronic transmission system," said Mutua.
"We’ve made this decision," he continued, "based on the fact that as much as there is petition in court to challenge the elections, we believe that the judgment of the Supreme Court may not be comprehensive enough in terms of coming up with a report and talking about specifically what IEBC may have omitted to do, or may have committed whether deliberately or not."
The committee is set to begin its inquiry next week and would have 45 days to conclude its investigations before submitting its report to the Law Society. The group consists of experts in electoral, human rights and telecommunication law, as well as experts in information technology among others.
Mutua says the committee will come up with recommendations that he says will help strengthen future elections, and sharply reduce voter irregularities or fraud.
“We will also use this report to agitate for impeachment of the [IEBC] commissioners or anybody at the secretariat who may have been complacent to the failures in the systems and also to the manner in which the elections were conducted,” said Mutua.
He says the committee plans to put out advertisements to encourage Kenyans who may have evidence of voter fraud to submit them.
"We are going to share the report with the relevant government agencies, including the police and in the event a crime may have been committed… and including the ethics and anti-corruption commission, in the event there may have been corruption in the procurement of the systems, which failed," said Mutua.
The IEBC declared Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the country's founding leader, president-elect with 50.07 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff.
But, Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) is challenging the outcome of the presidential vote in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court plans to rule on the challenge by Saturday, which is 14 days after the election as enshrined in the constitution.
The committee, says chairman Eric Mutua, will examine what he described as the mass failure of electronic technology during the elections administered by the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC).
He says the investigating committee will determine the circumstances that led to the reported failure of the technology system used to identify voters and transmit the vote count back to election headquarters.
"The committee has the mandate to look at the entire electoral system. [It] will look at what could have gone wrong, including the question of the failure of the electronic transmission system," said Mutua.
"We’ve made this decision," he continued, "based on the fact that as much as there is petition in court to challenge the elections, we believe that the judgment of the Supreme Court may not be comprehensive enough in terms of coming up with a report and talking about specifically what IEBC may have omitted to do, or may have committed whether deliberately or not."
The committee is set to begin its inquiry next week and would have 45 days to conclude its investigations before submitting its report to the Law Society. The group consists of experts in electoral, human rights and telecommunication law, as well as experts in information technology among others.
Mutua says the committee will come up with recommendations that he says will help strengthen future elections, and sharply reduce voter irregularities or fraud.
“We will also use this report to agitate for impeachment of the [IEBC] commissioners or anybody at the secretariat who may have been complacent to the failures in the systems and also to the manner in which the elections were conducted,” said Mutua.
He says the committee plans to put out advertisements to encourage Kenyans who may have evidence of voter fraud to submit them.
"We are going to share the report with the relevant government agencies, including the police and in the event a crime may have been committed… and including the ethics and anti-corruption commission, in the event there may have been corruption in the procurement of the systems, which failed," said Mutua.
The IEBC declared Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the country's founding leader, president-elect with 50.07 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff.
But, Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) is challenging the outcome of the presidential vote in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court plans to rule on the challenge by Saturday, which is 14 days after the election as enshrined in the constitution.
