Kenyan PM calls for biometric voting halt

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called for a halt to the biometric voter registration tender in favor of the old manual system. He called the controversial US$46.3 million contract for a biometric voter registration system a scam and asked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to use the old manual registration system, which was previously condemned by an independent electoral reform commission.

Ababu Namwamba, a parliamentary leader in the prime minister’s political faction, said: “As a party, we are greatly concerned about the controversy which has followed the IEBC tender and we unequivocally reject the whole process and call for its termination.”

He said the IEBC tendering process lacked public confidence, which is crucial with an election nearing. The prime minister’s political faction, for its part, is wary that the tender for the biometric voter registration is simply “rigged” to put in place technology that favors their rivals. They are calling for a new, transparent tendering process due to the problems plaguing the Kenyan electoral biometrics contract.

Will Kenya use the manual system or biometric voter registration for its upcoming election?

Article Topics

biometrics  |  elections  |  fingerprint technology  |  government purchasing  |  identity verification  |  national ID  |  voting