April 6, 2017
KPMG begins audit of Kenya’s voters register. This comes after many accusations of fraudulent vote-counting.
The KPMG audit firm has announced that it has already started the process of verifying the voter’s register ahead of the August general elections.
“KPMG Kenya is pleased to announce that we have already commenced the audit of the register of voters in accordance with our technical proposal and contract with IEBC,” said firm’s Chief Executive Officer Josphat Mwaura in a statement.
According to Mwaura, the objectives of the audit will be to review the legal framework and systems underlying the registration process and will be reviewing among other key things the register of voters against certified data on national IDs and passports provided by the principal Registrar of Persons and the Director of Immigration.
“To achieve the objectives of the Audit, KPMG has a comprehensive methodology which includes the review of the register of voters against certified data on national IDs provide by the Principal Registrar of Persons as appointed under Section 5 of the Registration of Persons Act to confirm that those who have registered using IDs are bonafide citizens and that they are validly registered as voters,” Mwaura said.
The firm has also said that it will also review the register of voters against the certified register of deaths duly certified by the Principal Registrar of Births and Deaths to ensure that no deceased persons are included in the register of voters.
IEBC awarded KPMG the contract of conducting an audit of the voter’s in December last year.
CORD moved to court to challenge the tender award to KPMG but lost the application. Through lawyer Anthony Olouch, the opposition coalition claimed that the tender award did not involve a professional and reputable firm to conduct an audit.
The petitioners further argued that no stakeholders including political parties were involved in the issuing of the tender and that Parliament had not yet amended election laws to allow an audit of the voter register.
Judge Enoch Chacha Mwita however dismissed the application saying it was incompetent and appeared to have been filed in a hurry.
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