PUBLIC POLICY FOR KENYA'S ELECTORAL TECHNOLOGY

BY OBAR MARK
MEMORANDUM TO THE SENATE LEGAL AFFAIRS AND ICT COMMITTEES ON
MATTERS RELATING TO THE ELECTION LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Asuelaa is a private citizen and an Industrial Technology Designer, Developer and ICT
Policy Formulator with over five years of experience in Digital Technology, Broadcast Media
Technology, Information, Communication and Technology Industries. He is currently head of
Digital Production Section within Standard Digital, a department within Standard Group Limited
Kenya. His major technological works include flight evidence evaluator (FEE) and High
Dimensional Election Analytic Systems.
CONTACT OF THE AUTHOR:
Mobile Phone: 0728762356
AS REGARDS THEMATIC AREA 1: REGISTRATION AND VALIDATION OF
POTENTIAL VOTERS BY INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL AND BOUNDARIES
COMMISSION
Present state:
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday 14 th September 2016 assented to law, Election Laws
(Amendment) Bill 2016 through the National Assembly and the Senate. The law brought to force
a number of changes including:
i) Amendment of section 2 of No. 24 of 2011
- (d) That defined Electoral Register as Register of Voters by deleting the expression Principal
Register of Voters
- (e) Inserting the following new definitions in their proper alphabetical sequence
biometric means unique identifiers or attributes including fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe
geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA, and signatures; and
Integrated electronic electoral system refers to a system that includes biometric voter
registration, biometric voter identification and electronic result transmission system;

National Assembly (on 22nd December 2016) however sort to make changes to this law so as to
allow IEBC to have multiple registers such that when biometric registry fails, the commission
can resort to any other available register.

The proposed amendments (Section 44) also allows IEBC to come up with manual system of
identifying voters. This system(s) will supposedly be complementary to the electronic systems as
provided in Article 38 of the Constitution.
Technical Explanation:
As it were in the Election Laws (amendment), 2016, IEBC would be expected to create an
integrated system with ability to carry out five major electoral roles:

Voter Registration
Data Management
Vote Tabulation
Digital and Physical Ballot Counting
Vote Transmission and display

Under Voter Registration and Data Management, the commission is expected, and has
developed database which is meant to register and manage registered voters.
The commission uses a database software known as Oracle 11G, which has been integrated with
other database management software such as SQL and My SQL.
The content (during registration) in these databases are normally saved as files extensions of
Wavelet Scalar Quantization (WSQ) algorithm, which is a compression algorithm used for grayscale fingerprint images, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves,
DNA, and signatures.
On Voting Day, the commission will use identifiers known as Primary Keys. The commission
uses concatenated keys. These are multiple identifiers such as National Identification numbers,
passport numbers, polling station names and numbers. This is the most basic identification
process that is done by a biometric software, installed in a laptop.
Majority of voters have been biometrically registered using their fingerprints. As such, these
databases will also use a matching algorithm known as AFIS, that is, Automated Fingerprint
Identification System.
NOTE: AFIS algorithm runs in nearly all electronic voter identification devices (EVIDs), and the
same gadgets are able identify voters using other algorithms such as geometry algorithms which
are able to identify voters using their earlobes, hands, face and other body parts. Geometric
algorithms are normally used to identify people in Airports.
The process of authenticating genuine voters using concatenated key can be made up of one or
more columns. The only requirement of the PK is that the combination of columns in it must
combine to create a unique value for each row. If the primary key is defined as using more than
one column, it is a composite - or concatenated - primary key.

Layman or Non-specialized Explanation:

Questions
(i)
Does IEBC need more than one voter registers?
(ii)
Does IEBC need manual (books) voter registers?
(iii)
Is it possible to register all voters biometrically?
(iv)
Is it possible to identify all voters biometrically?
The provisions of Section 44 (as amended by National Assembly on 22 nd December 2016)
allowed IEBC to put in place a commentary manual mechanism for identification of voters.
Even though the proposed laws havent outlined the steps for manual mechanism, I strongly
believe that MPs would like IEBC to print hard-copied books which will also act as registers.
In 2013 Presidential Petition, one of the contentious issues was the voters register that was used
by the commission during voting. It turned out that there were a number of registers.
Currently, amendment of Section 2 of No. 24 of 2011 of Election Law, distinctively defines
election register as a single Register of Voters.
I guess that, this law wanted to remove any form of confusion in the register of voters. It also
attempted to wedge out a possibility of electoral malpractice.
Recommendations:
-

REGISTER OF VOTERS: - Any biometric register has got the features and ability to
hold voters with divergent primary key identifiers such as fingerprints, hand geometry,
earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA, and signatures.

ELECTRONIC VOTER IDENTIFICATION DEVICES: - Ordinarily, EVIDs are

capable of running multiple identification algorithms including geometric, AFIS and
many more. These algorithms will be able to identify voters with various primary key
identifiers such as hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves,
DNA and signatures. These EVIDs can operate for more than twenty four hours, as such,
there shouldnt be any worry when it comes to functionality.

Conclusion:
-

To avoid possible malpractices, its important to have one clearly defined biometric
register of voters.

AS REGARDS THEMATIC AREA 2: ELECTION RESULTS TRANSMISSION BY

INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL AND BOUNDARIES COMMISSION

Present state:
The National Assembly on Thursday 22nd December 2016 approved changes to the Election
(Amendment) Laws, 2016, setting stage for political showdown just eight months to the General
Election.
The changes to the law allows Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to
come up with manual mechanisms for transmitting election results from constituency tallying
centres to the National Tallying Centre. According to Section 44 of the Election (Amendment)
Laws, 2016, the manual mechanisms are meant to supplement or compliment the electronic
systems.
Earlier in September 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta had signed into law a Bill following the
passage of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2016 through the National Assembly and the
Senate.
Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2016 was however categorical that election results would only
be transmitted electronically from constituency tallying centres to National Tallying Centre.

Matters of Fact:
-

IEBC have expressed an interest to transmit data (Election Results) on Safaricom

network infrastructure.

IEBC is working with Safaricom and other stakeholders so as to ensure that transmission
of results is successful.

Safaricom has indicated that they do not have capacity to provide network coverage for
the entire country.

Communication Authority (CA) has indicated that its not possible to have network
coverage for the entire country.

Matters of Concern:
a) IEBC-Safaricom Engagement: In the past few months, IEBC has been on a hunt for suppliers for election materials and
services. Among the companies which have been contracted by the commission include Dubaibased Al Ghuarair firm which will provide ballot papers, and KPMG auditing firm which is
supposed to audit voter register.
KINDLY NOTE:
As required by law, IEBC engaged and contracted the above companies (KPMG and Al
Ghuarair) as per Kenyas Public Procurement and Disposal Act. It means that the commission
advertised the tender and eventually picked the most favourite bidder to supply services or
materials as guaranteed in our laws.
KINDLY NOTE:
I wish indicate the following as recommendations even before going into further discussions:
-

Im not sure of legal state of engagement between IEBC and Safaricom.

If IEBC needs network provision, the commission should follow Kenyas Public
Procurement and Disposal Act and advertise for the tender so that other suppliers
including Safaricom can bid for the tender.

Network provision is a mandatory service (required by IEBC) just like other services
including voter-register auditing services. Network provision is not a natural resource
which IEBC can tap without seeking legal aspect of such activities.

IEBC should set terms, conditions and requirements for winning the tender, and one of
the requirements should be:
ability to provide the entire country with network coverage;
be able to provide special mobile devices, fitted with digital scanners for
transmission of election results from polling stations to National Tallying Centre;

Any engagement between IEBC and Safaricom or any other organization for that matter,
must be based on constitutional provisions.

The engagement between IEBC and Safaricom should that of a client and supplier, where
IEBC is the client and Safaricom the supplier, and this must follow Kenyas Public
Procurement and Disposal Act.

It means that for Safaricom to provide the commission with network, it must bid and win
the tender to do so.

Technical Explanation:
As it were in the Election Laws (amendment), 2016, IEBC would be expected to create an
integrated Results Transmission System (RTS) with ability to relay results from various parts of
the country to the National Tallying Centre.
Previous elections have indicated clearly that human manual activities have not been able to keep
pace with the reading and transmission of large amount of data including election results.
Its only technology that is incrementally replacing humans with automation of key areas of
information processing. These areas include document ingest, content categorization, data
translation, context-and-temporally-based information retrieval.
RTS Algorithms and logarithms have been designed with a simple mathematical concept of
logxy = logx + logy to implement rapidly reconfigurable hardware (mobile device with a
digital scanner) so as continuously (re)process and interpret extremely high volumes
unstructured data for transmission.
Transmission of light data such as text and images can be done by simple RTS algorithms such
as rapid implementation of semantic processing algorithm. The system includes a highperformance infrastructure that includes hardware- an accelerated content processing platform;
mass storage to hold data, tools for analysis and visualization of the data.
Ordinarily Results Transmission Systems would have Field-programmable Port Extender (FPX)
which links data-centre to mobile devices with a digital scanners across the country on a
network. Users will therefore be able to transmit data easily using these mobile devices.
The mobile devices will be prescribed to specific polling locations with specific codes which
identify number of registered voters per polling station, provide digital form for number of votes
per candidate and another form for rejected votes as well as other necessary features.
Questions:
Did you know that Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) uninterruptable uses Intelsat satellite,
IS20 and Eutelsat satellite E36B to transmit heavy video signals to more than one million TV
sets across the world?
Did you know that airplanes use satellite technology to flying over deserts and large oceans
without network coverage?

Recommendations:
- NATIONWIDE NETWORK PROVIDER
IEBC should place a tender for nationwide network provider. This will allow satellite
companies to bid for the tender to provide network.
Some satellite companies are also able to provide network coverage plus synthetic
aperture radar system which allows participants to monitor election proceedings in all
polling stations across the country.
-

If IEBC needs network provision, the commission should follow Kenyas Public
Procurement and Disposal Act and advertise for the tender so that other suppliers
including Safaricom can bid for the tender.

Network provision is a mandatory service (required by IEBC) just like other services
including voter-register auditing services. Network provision is not a natural resource
which IEBC can tap without seeking legal aspect of such activities.

IEBC should set terms, conditions and requirements for winning the tender, and one of
the requirements should be:
ability to provide the entire country with network coverage;
be able to provide special mobile devices, fitted with digital scanners for
transmission of election results from polling stations to National Tallying Centre;

Any engagement between IEBC and Safaricom or any other organization for that matter,
must be based on constitutional provisions.

The engagement between IEBC and Safaricom should that of a client and supplier, where
IEBC is the client and Safaricom the supplier, and this must follow Kenyas Public
Procurement and Disposal Act.

It means that for Safaricom to provide the commission with network, it must bid and win
the tender to do so.

General Conclusion:
a) I regret the fact that its difficult to canvas some of these issues without sounding
political. However, Ive pieced together these ideas as a citizen with good intetions and
the will to move this country forward.

This election is our journey, and its Gods gift to us. What we make of it is our gift to God,
Obar Mark Asuelaa.
Make it count!