The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has suspended elections for four elective seats that had been slated for August 9, after errors were discovered on ballot papers.
Speaking to members of the press at Bomas in Nairobi, on Monday, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati said the ballot papers had wrong images of candidates printed on them.
The affected polls include the Mombasa and Kakamega gubernatorial contests.
Others are elections for members of the National Assembly in Pokot South and Kacheliba constituencies.
Chebukati said the elections will be conducted at a later date to be announced by the commission.
“Ballot papers for the following elective positions were noted to have errors. Ballot papers for Kakamega county governor positions, Mombasa County have wrong gubernatorial candidate pictures and the details printed on them. Positions for members of the National Assembly in Pokot South and three in Kachiriba also have wrong candidate pictures and the details printed on them,” Chebukati said.
“As a result, elections for their respective positions have been suspended to a later date which shall be announced through a gazette notice.”
The ballot papers were printed in Athens, Greece, by Inform Lykos (Hellas) S.A. company.
The IEBC boss also confirmed that ballot papers for several constituencies were wrongly routed during the distribution process. The affected areas include Fafi constituency, Tiaty constituency and Mua ward.
“The commission has since re-routed the ballot papers to the rightful places using air transport contracted to facilitate such emergencies,” Chebukati added.
An IEBC KIEMS kit destined for Moyale was also reported missing and investigations into the incident are ongoing.
“We have blacklisted and replaced the missing kit. Any activity or data originating from the device will be flagged and isolated from the system – the kit will not be useful,” Chebukati affirmed.
