Repeat poll date set by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is likely to change.
This follows a submission by French IT firm OT-Morpho that it may not be able to reconfigure the KIEMS kits before October 17.
In a six-page document to the IEBC, the firm point out it requires about five weeks to reconfigure the 45,000 kits for the fresh election.
Morpho will have to configure the kits with Uhuru and Raila’s names only since it currently has eight names for Presidential candidates from the last elections.
The French firm will also do away with names, results and portraits of 14,000 candidates for the five other elective seats.
This is in a bid to clear the system and ensure the data for August 8 polls is safely removed and it does not in any way, show up in the repeat polls.
The poll agency will on Monday deliberate on the report on the voter identification and result transmission kits as submitted by Morpho.
A source observes the report will greatly form the basis of if the election date will be changed or not.
“Since Morpho gave its oral presentations, the talk of change of the election date has gained traction in the commission but has not become a substantive agenda,” the source says according to Daily Nation.
“The commission will meet again today to discuss a six-page report by Morpho and concretise its decision.”
IEBC Commissioner Dr. Paul Kurgat opines that the election date still stands at October 17.
“The date is still October 17, but Safran has presented its report and we will look at it and make decisions.”
Even if the poll date is changed, adds the source, the public will only know about it on Wednesday after a consultative meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA’s Raila Odinga.
The repeat polls should be held before November 1. October 24, 26 and 31 could be possible election dates once the commission plenary discuss the Morpho report
IEBC will still have to grapple with outer teething issues such as printing of Presidential ballot papers, training over 300,000 staff to man the polls and overcome demands by NASA which include sending home 11 of its staff.
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online Journalist and an author for Jamhuri News