The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) have raised fears over possible shutdown of the internet during the polling day, August 8.
On Friday, the electoral body warned that such a move would affect its capacity to transmit and announce election results.
During a conference bringing together election observers, human rights defenders and journalists, IEBC’s head of election security Mr. Linus Onyango noted the commission will rely on electronic data transmission to relay election results, as a well as a web portal for announcing and displaying the results.
Therefore, any move by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) to shutdown the internet in a move to stop propaganda on social media would affect the commission’s operations.
But CA’s Director General Francis Wangusi said they are unlikely to take such a step.
He said the Authority is in full support of Kenyans expressing their opinion but it has to be with a lot of decorum.
He said they have been engaging social sites and those publishing offensive content will be pulled down.
“We are scavenging words likely to lead to violence and we are pulling offensive websites down,” he said.
African Countries which have held elections in the past two years have taken the drastic step of shutting down the internet.
Uganda, Gambia, Ghana, Gabon
Wangusi also warned broadcasters against announcing election results citing that it is only the IEBC that has been given the mandate to announce election results by the Constitution.
“Only IEBC is allowed by law to announce election results. The rest can only do so after IEBC.”