Polling stations to have reliable connectivity on election day, CA Director says

CA Director General David Muganyi speaks during the Kuza ICT Awards on April 17, 2024. PHOTO | COURTESY

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has assured reliable connectivity during the 2027 general election.

Speaking during the national election security consultative forum organized by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, CA Director General David Mugonyi said there would be reliable connectivity to support the voting process come August 10, 2027.

“Our role is to ensure the electoral commission has enough connectivity in polling stations,” said Mugonyi.

According to the Director General, the country enjoys strong 3G, 4G, and 5G networks in most areas, apart from marginalised ones.

“We will just be looking at a few marginalised places where we can improve connectivity,” said Mugonyi.

During the elections, connectivity is crucial in the transmission of electoral results from polling stations to tallying centres.

IEBC relies on networks to transmit polling station results through the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits.

Once the votes are manually counted and tallied at the polling station, the Presiding Officer uses the KIEMS kit to take a high-resolution, secure photograph of the filled-out Form 34A.

This data is simultaneously transmitted to the constituency tallying centre, the County tallying centre, the national tallying centre, and ultimately the public portal.

The CA, Mugonyi said, would also deliver on its mandate to support the media in result transmission, and also other processes that rely on the telecommunications sector.