Is e-voting the way for Kenya?

Earlier this month, in supporting the legitimacy of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) vote, National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi defended his colleagues against accusations of receiving irregular inducements to sway their votes at Parliament. 

He said they had achieved a two-thirds vote threshold, of 234 MPs supporting, something they had not managed in previous attempts to amend the Constitution, such as to implement the two-thirds gender rule. He added that two-thirds threshold was also not achieved back in 2009 when MPs were asked to vote for a local tribunal to deal with post-election violence cases. That vote had failed despite lobbying and presence in Parliament of both President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.  

What's also interesting about the success of the BBI vote is that it was achieved during Covid-19, and with reduced numbers at Parliament. But thanks to technology, MPs were able to record increased participation and to contribute and vote from their homes, offices or villages. 

And it's not just in parliament. My sacco had record attendance at this year's AGM. The meeting was virtual and had 2,000 participants, almost double the 1,100 record for a physical meeting.

For now, the High Court seems to have put off a referendum vote, sparking fury from some leaders who have appealed the ruling. But if politicians have their way, and a referendum happens, the 8th Kenyan election event in 20 years, what will it look like? 

India is going through a terrible Covid-19 surge, sparked by an increase in festivals and election campaigns. In Kenya, to popularise BBI, coronavirus health protocols were informally suspended leading to the return of crowds and political rallies suspected to have contributed to a second wave. Several leaders, including ODM leader Raila Odinga, fell ill soon after.

So then I wonder, instead of a traditional election, can we vote virtually? I looked to the acknowledged champions of e-government – Estonia and a resident called Tamabaku who described how for Estonians who do not live in the country, online voting has become the preferred way of taking part in elections. Ten times more Estonians vote this way than at their embassies. It works for them. 

But online voting and other unconventional methods generate controversy, none more than with the United States in 2020. According to Pew Research, with Covid raging, 46 per cent of Americans voted by posting their ballots by mail. And of the 54 per cent who cast their ballot at polling stations, half of them voted before election day to avoid the anticipated in-person crowds on November 3. 

As the mail-in votes appeared to tilt the election away from President Donald Trump, he started a wave of claims including rigging, foreign interference, dead voters, mathematical algorithms, and vote-altering machines that spread on the internet and social media. This culminated in the protest at the US Capitol on January 6 to stop the final tallying of the electoral vote. 

Today Trump is out, but he still maintains the election was rigged.

Kenya has had its share of contested election outcomes, in the streets and the courts. The 2013 vote that was taken to the Supreme Court spawned the phrase "fungua server" (open up and show us the computer vote logs). So online voting, despite its uses for Parliament, companies and saccos, is not likely to make its way to the IEBC any time soon.

Meanwhile, Smartmatic  - the previously-maligned voting technology firm - now advertises that by 2021, it supported 7 elections in countries on 3 continents including Zambia, Uganda, and local elections in the UK and the US!