The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has until the end of today to test the technology expected to be used to transmit the results of the August 9 polls.
The electoral agency will test, verify and deploy the technology, which must be completed at least 60 days before a general election.
IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati said the test run will be conducted at Bomas of Kenya in the presence of representatives of the four presidential candidates.
“You have given us chief agents to work with. You will be invited to be part of that simulation exercise. We want to reiterate that the commission is focused on giving Kenyans a free, fair and credible election. That is what we have been preparing for since the last election,” Chebukati said.
Section 44 of the Elections Act mandates the IEBC to “test, verify and deploy” technology to be used in the election 60 days before the election date, meaning the electoral body has 20 days to physically test its equipment.
However, the electoral agency is racing against time to test the result transmission technology.
The dry run is intended to identify issues with electronic copies of election results, which are used to collate provisional election results at the national tallying centre in Bomas.
The IEBC has indicated that once the register of voters has been finalised, it will determine and publish the number of polling stations outside the 3-G network.
Thereafter, all polling stations will be tested for the purpose of results transmission and satellite modems deployed in polling stations without 3-G network, the commission has said.
A row over how many polling stations are without coverage has recently put the IEBC and the Communications Authority at loggerheads.
The CA, mandated with mapping network coverage, reported to the electoral agency that Kenya’s 3G coverage was 98 per cent, a result of an analysis it based on the geo-coordinates of the polling stations submitted by the IEBC.