Stolen laptops, BVR kits were not used in 2017, 2022 elections - IEBC

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has clarified the theft of Electronic Voter Identification Devices (EVID) laptops and Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits in several of its warehouses in the country.

This is in the wake of a report the commission presented to Parliament detailing the loss of election equipment such as laptops, BVR kits, and hard disks across Kisumu, Tharaka-Nithi and Nandi counties.

While some sections of the media reported that the stolen equipment posed a threat to the credibility of the country’s past elections, among them the 2022 polls, the commission has said devices were not used in the 2017 and 2022 general elections.

“Instead, the Commission used the Kenya Integrated Electronic Management System (KIEMS) kits. EVIDs have since become obsolete and their net book value is zero,” IEBC said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The electoral body said the 952 stolen devices were procured in 2012 for use in the 2013 General Election.

“Since the devices cannot be used and they are attracting costs in form of storage and security, they have been lined up for disposal after following the due process as guided by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 and its attendant regulations,” the Hussein Marjan-led commission added.

The commission further noted that the 125 stolen BVR kits only contain raw data that has not been processed for inclusion in the register of voters thus posing minimal risks.

“Data stored in the BVR kits, if any, is automatically encrypted by the application system to ensure integrity and confidentially,” the statement read.

In IEBC’s Public Accounts Committee report for 2020/2021, the commission says the theft may have happened between 2013 and 2021.

Marjan, who is the commission's CEO, says they lost 952 EVID laptops, 125 BVR kits and 1,315 hard disks.

He told the committee that in some cases, the equipment was stolen even as the police manned the warehouses.