The Adoption of Information Technologies in Elections: Kenya's Case

Introduction 

Background to the Research 

Information technologies have emerged as critical factors in the success of many organizations, business, and governments for the fact that they allow efficient and fast methods of information sharing and securing. For this reason, there has been a high rate of adoption of such technologies worldwide, across almost all industries. The use of such technologies in elections has been debated for some time. Proponents of the adoption of such technologies cite success in other industries and argue that it has the capacity to revolutionize elections (Krosnick, Miller, and Tichy, 2004). On the contrary, those against these technologies have cited the possibilities of failure resulting from such issues as cyber-attacks and others (Gueorguieva, 2008). The perceptions of both sides have been credible at least to certain perspectives since information technologies have been incorporated into elections and transformed the experience of voters and managers. One of such areas that have been greatly boosted by the use of technologies is the transmission of results, which has allowed the electorate to monitor the progress of their preferred candidates and ensured transparency. As much as such success has been realized, using technologies in elections has been controversial in some cases since there have been allegations of a lack of transparency resulting from an interference with the information systems. 

The purpose of the research being proposed in this work will be on the use of technologies in the elections of Kenya, one of the three nations of the East Africa Region. The research will focus on the gaps in the use of information technologies in three general elections of the country, in 2007, 2013, and 2017. The focus on Kenya is special for the fact that the country has been one of the leading in terms of the adoption of technologies for such purposes in Africa. While other countries have attempted to use the same technologies, it is notable that the case study of Kenya has highlighted important lessons on the effectiveness of their usage. For example, Kenya uses information systems in registering its voters, checking the voter register, transmitting results from polling centers, and in allowing the public to track the progress of the electoral process (Mutung’u, 2017). Most of the purposes for which information technologies have been used have been successful. The most notable of such success have been in the registration and confirmation of the voter register, which has eliminated the need, for example, for voters to carry their voter registration cards to the polling stations. The election managers have been able to go through the large voter register with ease since the use of technology lets them to use biometric systems to identify individual voters when they turn up to vote (Mutung’u, 2017). However, the area of results transmission has been the most criticized in the recent past. In fact, in the just concluded August 2017 elections, the Supreme Court of the nation was compelled to annul the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta after Chief Justice Maraga found that the credibility of the elections had been compromised by a lack of credibility in the transmission of results (Burke, 2017; Ombour, Schemm, 2017; Al Jazeera and News Agencies, 2017; Freytas-Tamura, 2017). 

As seen from the brief description of the case of the use of election technology in Kenya, there are both positives and negatives, and the fact that they have occurred simultaneously in one of the most popular African nations makes research in the technological gaps important. Specifically, there is a need to study how the technological gaps arose and the manner in which information technology students could be useful in bridging them. Bridging the gaps is of a specific concern since technologies cost nations significantly both in time and resource investment. For the case of Kenya, for example, politicians have been on campaign sprees for almost the whole of 2017, which implies the levels of immersion into the electoral process that its electorate has undergone over the same period (Mutung’u, 2017). The enormity of the campaign period has been extended by the fact that information systems failed to guarantee credible elections. As a result, a considerable section of the electorate has started losing faith in the electoral process. The most recent development in the electoral system has been a move by the parliament of the country to amend election laws to favor candidates declared winners by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) against the possibilities of an annulment (Wanambisi, 2017). Such a move has pushed the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, to indicate that he will boycott the ordered fresh elections slotted for 26 October 2017. Bridging the gap in the use of information technologies, therefore, turns out to be necessary to avoid the impending perils of such nations as Kenya, whose electoral system has been committed to using information technologies to revolutionize its elections and enhance democracy on which it is founded. 

Gap in Literature 

Extant literature on the role of technologies in elections has focused on the advantages and disadvantages. For example, the purpose of such researches has been to study the extent to which technologies could be effective in transforming the nature of the electoral process (Krosnick, Miller, and Tichy, 2004). Some of the studies have studied the potential drawbacks of using technologies in the exercise (e.g. Geist, 2010; Elections Canada, 2017; The Economist, 2014). However, few of such studies have focused on the manner in which the drawbacks of the use of technologies in elections could be dealt with (Option Technologies International Limited, 2017). Combined with the fact that none of such studies has focused on any African nation, focusing on the case study will be a pioneer research that will provide an insight how the flaws in the usage of technology could be addressed in future. 

The Objectives of the Proposed Research 

The proposed research will seek to study the relationship between the use of technologies in elections and the quality of the outcome. The specific objectives of the study will be as follows: 

To determine the levels of adoption of election technologies in the Kenyan Elections 

To establish the levels of success of the usage of technologies of elections in the elections of Kenya 

Do determine the factors that have affected the use of technologies in Kenya negatively. 

To recommend best practice that could be useful in dealing with the gaps in the usage of election technologies in Kenya 

The Proposed Research Questions 

The background to the study as described in the succeeding paragraphs, therefore suggest that information systems could be effective in the management of elections, but the possibilities of shortcomings suggest that they could be as equally harmful as they could be for nations. The research question that the actual study will seek to answer therefore will be as follows: 

The Main Research Question 

To what extent does the use of information technologies affect the credibility of the electoral process of Kenya? 

Subsidiary Research Questions 

What advantages and disadvantages has the incorporation of information technology into the electoral system of Kenya brought to its electorate? 

Which of the factors on the list of the disadvantages of election technology has been the most significant on the electoral process? What effects has such a factor brought to the nation? 

What role do information technology students have in dealing with flaws of the use of election technologies in Kenya? 

Literature Review 

The invention of information technologies has seen the world transform in the manner in which information is shared across different platforms. The adoption of election technology was heralded as one of the most significant steps in reforming the electoral system in most nations. For example, in the US, there has been debate concerning the ways of raising voter turnout using technologies that would help people to vote at their convenience (Gross, 2017). Kenya has been in a general election mood for the better part of 2017. The nation has been eager to adopt technologies that would reduce the instances of fraud such as those that happened during the 2007 elections, which plunged the East African nation into turmoil (BBC News, 2013). The controversy concerning the usage of election technologies in the 2017 general elections has been a concern for the politicians and electorate alike. 

The country used technology in the 2013 general elections in areas such as results transmission, electronic voter identification, and biometric voter registration (BBC News, 2013). This technology allowed an immediate transmission of poll results from each polling station in the country to the tallying centers and improved the efficiency of identification of voters. Similar integrated technological systems were used in the just concluded August 2017 elections. Before the elections, there was debate concerning the credibility of the elections concerned the possibilities of the adoption of a complementary system to the extant technologies that would be effective in the event of technological failure (Treisman, 2017). Such a concern has been the bone of contention for the opposition in the country, which has been infuriated by past events in which there has been allegations of wide spread fraud such as the case of 2007. 

Kenya has been holding its general elections since 1920. In its first of such elections, the colonial legislative council was elected, and the periods of subsequent elections can be classified loosely according to the socio-political issues that have spanned the country. There were nine elections between 1920 and 1956, which indicated clamor concerning equal representation in government in terms of race and gender (Mutung’u, 2017). There was a realization of universal suffrage in 1961, a short while before Kenya was declared independent in 1963. The government immediately after the independence transformed its structure from decentralized one to a centralized system that had only a single political party, The Kenya African National Union led by President Jomo Kenyatta (Mutung’u, 2017). Subsequent elections from 1963 to 1988 were with a fundamental element of an executive power nexus. However, it is worth mentioning that the country reverted to a multi-party system in 1991, and that the elections spanning the years from 1992 to 2007 were a reflection of plurality. Nevertheless, the 2007 post-election violence indicates that societal issues were manifested in addition to those of political representation. 

Like most of the African nations, Kenya has met with significant levels of challenges in elections and governance. There was the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010, which ensured an enhancement in the Bill of Rights and an introduction of a devolved government system (Mutung’u, 2017). The 2013 general elections were the first to be carried out under the new constitution and while the process was peaceful, its outcomes were disputed. The dispute of the results of the elections was partly because the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, considered that there were faults in the usage of election technologies (BBC News, 2013). Before the 2017 elections, activists and politicians called for a better preparation for the elections with the use of technology in fundamental processes such as the identification of voters and the transmission of results being one of the major issues. 

The African Union was critical in brokering a peace agreement that was entered between President Kibaki and Raila Odinga in 2008 following the post-election violence of 2007 (Treisman, 2017). Following this peace agreement, two commissions that would investigate into the cause of the violence and provide working recommendations that would eliminate the possibilities of such issues in future were appointed. Justice Waki led one of such commissions, the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence. The report submitted by this commission. The report identified negative ethnicity, unemployment, poverty, and land as the major causes of the violence. Resultantly, the commissioners recommended the regulation of the freedom of expression thru having a constitutional provision that limits the liberty when it translates to hate speech (Mutung’u, 2017). 

The Independent Review Commission submitted its Krieglar report after it had been given the mandate to investigate all the elements of the 2007 general elections and recommend the manner in which the situation could be remedied. In the report, the commissioners found that there existed institutional weaknesses that included bureaucratic procedures as well as inadequacy of training of election managers has affected the elections. In addition, Krieglar found the absence of voters from the voting register, the stuffing of ballots, delays in results transmission, negative propaganda and hate speech at the time of campaigns, the use of sexist tactics, errors in the summation of results, a delay in the declaration of the winner among other issues as the additional faults in the electoral system (Mutung’u, 2017). 

The recommendations of the Krieglar report were in six themes. The themes included the counting and tallying of votes, the role of actors within the electoral process, post-election procedures, the structure of organization and operation of elections, the legal and organizational frameworks on the conduction of elections, and conduct of the 2007 elections (BBC News, 2013). The report further noted that the then electoral management body, the Electoral Commission of Kenya, should have leveraged the use on Information and Communication Technologies that would have helped in streamlining some of its activities and improved the efficiency of the electoral process, particularly during the processing of results (Mutung’u, 2017). For instance, the report indicated that the adoption of an integrated secure system of data transmission and tallying of results that would allow the media to access proceedings would help in deflating anxiety related to waiting of results. 

It was heard during the sittings of the Krieglar commission that the Electoral Commission of Kenya had been receiving significant technical support from an array of partners in areas such as advice concerning the implementation of an approach to transmission and tallying of the results that would be effective and convenient. It turned out that such a system had been experimented with during a 2005 referendum that had sought to change the constitution (Mutung’u, 2017). The subsequent elections, the 2007 one, used technology a great deal. However, it should be understood that that such a usage was uncoordinated as well as compartmentalized. The report also flagged the matters concerning uncodified and bureaucratic procedures of operations, the inadequacy of training of the staff involved in the management of elections, and the lack of the utilization of technologies in the process that would include the dissemination of information. The report raised a fundamental question, which was if the adoption of technology reforms required significant legal reforms. The Commission was of the perception that Electoral Commission of Kenya should have adopted policy for Information and Communications Technology that would have guided its activities (Mutung’u, 2017). The nation appeared to be on the correct path in the provision a framework that would be as effective as possible in the reduction of the discretion of its electoral commission. 

The elections of 2013 were conducted using three components of elections technologies, the biometric voter registration, the electronic voter identification, and the results transmission system. The technology used in registration of voters was implemented successfully since there was a registration kit that included a camera, a fingerprint scanner, and a laptop used in the capturing of the fingerprints and images of the voters (BBC News, 2013). The registration kit linked the collected data to the personally identifiable data that included the addresses for voters and their national identity information. However, it should be noted that the electronic voter register failed to work as expected. There were two forms of the same technology. The first was that included a confirmation of voter details using a laptop with fingerprint readers while the second used hand-held readers. During that time, it was noted that some of the devices ran out of power while some of them crashed, and the body in the management of the 2013 polls was not adequately prepared to deal with the challenges of equipment failure. The technologies used in the transmission of results also failed for the fact that a forced discontinuation occurred because of the fact that bugs in the transmission technologies and an information overload meant that the system could not be as effective as it had been purposed to be (BBC News, 2013). 

The results of the elections in 2013 could not be easily verified in terms of their credibility. For this reason, the opposition leader moved to the newly inaugurated Supreme Court of Kenya to petition the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the fourth president. During this petition, the technology involved in the delivery of a free and fair generation election was among the fundamental issues that needed to be addressed. Specifically, the Supreme Court was to determine if the use of electronic technologies during the general elections was mandatory or discretionary (BBC News, 2013; Mutung’u, 2017). During the hearing, the petition maintained that when the newly appointed Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission abandoned the use of electronic means of results transmission and voter verification to the manual ones, much disarray occurred such that there could be no guarantee to the credibility of the process. It was also contested that the electoral process had been marred by tallying inaccuracies that the departure from an electronic system had occasioned. Delivering the majority verdict, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga argued that the electoral management body had been left with no other option expect reverting to the traditional manual system after the electronic system had failed (BBC News, 2013). In addition, the court established that such failures had occurred for the fact that the there had been insignificant efforts to determine the reliability and credibility of the electronic systems. 

The August 2017 elections also raised concerns of the use of technologies in elections. For instance, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the petitioner in a case that challenged the re-election of President Kenyatta. This time, the court found that the transmission of results had been marred by cyber-attacks on the electronic databases as well as unauthorized entries into the same database. As a result, as the opposition had alleged, the results of the elections were interfered with in favor of the incumbent President Kenyatta. Therefore, the court ordered a fresh election, directing the electoral management body pays special attention to the mistakes highlighted in the ruling. For this reason, the nation has been divided concerning the use of technology in its elections since significant accusation has been raised concerning the integrity of the electoral body, including its information technologies staff that is under the secretariat headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Ezra Chiloba (Al Jazeera and News Agencies, 2017). Therefore, it is clear from the case study of Kenya that while using information technologies in elections could be useful; there is always a concern for effectiveness. 

Methodology 

The proposed research will explore the objectives and answer the proposed research questions using the qualitative approach to research. According to Creswell and Poth (2017), qualitative research is useful when a researcher seeks to study the basis of human character. The research approach allows the collection of as many views as possible from respondents that will then be analyzed into themes that may then reveal the relationships among different variables. As much as the study does not involve human behavior, the fact that there have been two petitions in the last two general elections in Kenya suggests that the electorate and politicians alike have been concerned with the effectiveness of such approaches. For this reason, the study will be useful in the explanation of why such dissatisfaction has been witnessed in the country. 

The qualitative study will further adopt the case study design, which as Creswell and Poth (2017) note involves studying a single a single event, organization, or entity using multiple data sources. The study will involve a deep analysis of the case of Kenya and her experience with the last three general election in which the use of technology has been achieved. The fact that the nation has more than 40 million residents means that there would be a large sample of such resources from which the data shall be collected for analysis. The collection of data from such a large sample is useful in the generation of themes that will explain the relationship among the studied variables. 

The researcher will use three methods of data collection as suggested by (Merriam, 1998). Specifically, there will be the use of online interviews on the respondents who will be recruited for the study. It is notable that interviews are an effective method of studying the way people feel towards some specific elements of a given subject, such as the feeling when the Supreme Court in Kenya annulled the re-election of President Kenyatta. Conducting an online interview is an effective way for researchers who could be otherwise separated from their respondents by a physical barrier such as the great distance between the US and Kenya. However, the main concern for in the use of such a technique concerns the time that could consumed in the collection of data when the sample involved is relatively large. The researcher will also collect data using an analysis of documents, specifically, information on the facts of the individual court rulings involving the presidential petitions. This method of data collection suggests that the research will contain both primary and secondary qualitative data. Lastly, the study will use data collected using structured questionnaires that will be emailed to respondents after they shall have been recruited for the study. 

Three hundred respondents will be recruited for the study. First, the researcher will send five hundred consent letters to the prospective respondents that will be recruited through governmental agencies in Kenya. The reason for sending as many consent letters as possible will be to deal with the fact that some of the respondents might fail to return them, which will communicate their unwillingness to be involved in the study. Those that will return their consent letters will then provide a base for recruitment using the random sampling technique. According to Kazimierczuk, Zawadzka, and Koźmiński (2009), random sampling allows each of the respondents an equal chance of being involved in a study. The criteria for inclusion of the respondents will be the fact that they can communicate fluently either in Swahili or in English, because of the limitations in language proficiencies of the investigator. In addition, the respondents should have an ability to read and write for the fact that the questionnaire responses will require them to write their experiences as the study questions shall direct. 

Collected data will be analyzed using the SPSS statistical tool and content analysis. Content analysis will allow the investigator to group the different categories of respondents’ responses to the study questions into themes and the statistical tool will provide the basis of establishing the correlation among the different variables. This way, it will be possible for the researcher to determine the effect of technologies on the credibility of the electoral process in Kenya. The data will then be presented using visuals such as tables, charts, and graphs that will allow readers of the research paper to have a quick understanding of the associations among the different variables that will be studied. 

Projected Implications of the Findings 

The findings of the research will contribute to existing literature on the effectiveness of information technologies used for the purposes of elections. For the case of Kenya, the results and recommendations will add to the ideas that have been proposed by such commissions as the Krieglar and Waki on the measures that should be taken to improve the credibility of elections. Therefore, the recommendations will highlight the levels of contribution of IT students in solving societal issues. 

References 

Al Jazeera and News Agencies (2017). Kenya Supreme Court annuls result of presidential polls . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/kenya-supreme-court-annuls-result-presidential-polls-170901084743579.html 

BBC News (2013). Q&A: Kenya's vote count . (2017).  BBC News . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-21698223 

Burke, J. (2017).  Kenyan supreme court annuls Uhuru Kenyatta election victory .  the Guardian . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/kenyan-supreme-court-annuls-uhuru-kenyatta-election-victory 

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017).  Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches . Sage publications. 

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Gross, G. (2017).  5 ways to improve voting security in the US .  PCWorld . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.pcworld.com/article/3128072/security/5-ways-to-improve-voting-security-in-the-us.html 

Gueorguieva, V. (2008). Voters, MySpace, and YouTube: The impact of alternative communication channels on the 2006 election cycle and beyond.  Social Science Computer Review ,  26 (3), 288-300. 

Kazimierczuk, K., Zawadzka, A., & Koźmiński, W. (2009). Narrow peaks and high dimensionalities: exploiting the advantages of random sampling.  Journal of Magnetic Resonance ,  197 (2), 219-228. 

Krosnick, J. A., Miller, J. M., & Tichy, M. P. (2004). An unrecognized need for ballot reform: The effects of candidate name order on election outcomes.  Rethinking the vote: The politics and prospects of American election reform , 51-73. 

Merriam, S. B. (1998).  Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Revised and Expanded from" Case Study Research in Education." . Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome St, San Francisco, CA 94104. 

Mutung’u, G. (2017). A Brief on Technology and Elections in Kenya 2017 . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profiles/blogs/a-brief-on-technology-and-elections-in-kenya-2017 

Ombour, R., &, Schemm, P. (2017). Kenya’s Supreme Court annuls presidential election result for irregularities, orders new vote . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kenya-supreme-court-cancels-presidential-election-result-for-irregularities-orders-new-election/2017/09/01/ceee81d6-8ef4-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html?utm_term=.28c5daeac9f3 

Option Technologies International Limited. (2017).  Improve Electronic Voting | Option Technologies .  Optiontechnologies.com . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.optiontechnologies.com/improve-electronic-voting 

The Economist (2014). Why the Elections are Bad for You. Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains-8 

Treisman, L. (2017).  Kenyans use tech to stop election fraud .  CNN . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/27/africa/kenya-elections-technology/index.html 

Wanambisi, L. (2017).  Jubilee initiates plan to amend election laws » Capital News .  Capital News . Retrieved 16 October 2017, from https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2017/09/jubilee-initiates-plan-amend-election-laws/