The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has denied claims that some 3,000 voter identification kits are missing.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati says the claims are misleading.
Chebukati was responding to concerns raised by the Kenya Kwanza and the Azimio la Umoja coalitions.
The IEBC chairman noted that it was the BVR kits that had disappeared and that they were only used for the registration of voters in past elections
Further, Chebukati downplayed fears that parties can use the stolen KIEMS kits to manipulate poll results.
Consequently, Chebukati says that the commission had put in measures to prevent such incidents.
“This report is false and misleading. The Auditor General’s report made reference to BVR kits and not KIEMS kits. BVR kits are for registration and not voting. The Commission procured 15,000 BVR kits in 2012 that have technically reached the end of life.
“The Commission keeps an inventory of all its kits and in the event of any loss, the commission will block the kit from doing any transaction on the system,” read the statement in part.
At the same time, Chebukati insists that it is not possible to tamper with the Form 34’s for tabulating presidential results .
Additionally, Chebukati says the forms have special features that cannot easily allow manipulation.
“These measures include visible and invisible security features, polling station data personalization, barcodes and QR codes,’’ he said
Chebukati added that the National Police Service has deployed armed security to guard ballot papers in transit and at the respective warehouses
