Police officers who guarded voting materials on the eve of elections and monitored votes were only offered bread and either milk or tea for breakfast and supper, a new report has revealed.
The report released by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) shows that in some areas the police in question were provided with only two meals while others only had one meal.
This was contrary to what the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC) had promised.
“Though the IEBC had indicated that they would provide meals for the officers involved in election security, the monitoring teams noted discrepancies in the provision of meals across the country,” the report stated.
“The welfare of the deployed officers was not fully addressed as recommended by the authority in the previous elections report,” the report added.
Officers seek outside catering
The report further revealed that in some instances officers had to seek outside catering at their own expense.
Despite being fed poorly, the officers stood for extensive periods and went without sleep for two nights as they discharged their mandated roles.
IPOA stated that the lack of sleep and fatigue was risky to the officers who were armed with live ammunition since it was likely to influence their judgement negatively.
IEBC fingered for delays in transport
The report also highlighted that poor logistical planning on vehicles led to delays in the transportation of officers and election materials to the polling stations.
Some of the vehicles procured in some areas were old and unserviceable making them unsuitable for some terrain.
The officers also raised concerns about the level of training of IEBC officials citing that some were incompetent. They also pointed out that other officials lacked sufficient training and made visible mistakes which caused unnecessary delays.
This they said angered the members of the public and made the officers work harder since they were forced to intervene to calm the restless crowd.
In other instances, the officers were compelled to perform other duties such as queuing voters since there were no IEBC officers to guide the citizens on where to cast their votes.
