In the next 13 hours, 22.1 million Kenyans are set to choose the country’s fifth president, the successor to incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has documented a list of election offenses as stipulated in the Elections Act, 2016.
According to IEBC, the offenses include forging, counterfeits, defaces or destroying any ballot paper or the official perforation, stamp or mark on any ballot paper.
“Without authority supplies any ballot paper to any person; sells or offers for sale any ballot paper to any person; purchases or offers to purchase any ballot paper from any person and not being a person entitled to be in possession of any ballot paper which has been marked with any official perforation, stamp or mark has any such ballot paper in his possession,” IEBC stated.
Others include; A person who
a) puts into any ballot box anything other than the ballot paper which he is authorised by law to put in
b) without authority takes out of a polling station any ballot paper or is found in possession of any ballot paper outside a polling station
c) not being an election official and not being authorized, removes election material from a polling station before, during or after an election
d) without authority destroys, takes, opens, disposes of or otherwise interferes with any election material in use or intended to be used for the purposes of an election
e) without authority prints any ballot paper or what purports to be or is capable of being used as a ballot paper at an election
f) for the purposes of an election, manufactures, constructs, imports, has in his possession, supplies or uses, or causes to be manufactured, constructed, imported, supplied or used, any appliance, device or mechanism by which a ballot paper may be extracted, affected or manipulated after having been deposited in a ballot box during the polling at any election
g) not being authorized to do so under this Act, makes any mark on any ballot paper issued to any person other than to himself
h) votes at any election when they are not entitled to vote
i) votes more than once in any election
j) interferes with a voter in the casting of his vote in secret
k) pretends to be unable to read or write so as to be assisted in voting; or
l) pretends to be visually impaired or suffering from any other disability so as to be assisted in voting.
Any person who commits any of the offense is liable on conviction or a fine not exceeding Sh1 million or imprisonment of a term not exceeding six years or to both.