Manual voter register must be used in Kenya polls – court

A Kenyan court has ordered the country’s electoral body to use a manual register to identify voters in next week’s general election.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had planned to rely solely on the electronic voter register, saying that using printed registers could open the door to electoral malpractice.

But the court said the IEBC’s plans would violate the Kenyan constitution. Where electronic voter identification devices fail, a printed register must be used instead, it said.

At the last elections in 2017, Kenya’s computerised voting system came under the spotlight when the man in charge of it – Chris Msando – was tortured to death days before polls opened.

No-one has been prosecuted for his murder.