[kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?+eTransmission system role

Mon Mar 11 20:11:18 EAT 2013

@Rigia, + Mark,

For the Kenyan case, apart from PR, the electronic transmission system also had the additional, if not main role of solving the perennial problem of misreporting the tallied votes.  Basically, in the old days, a Constituency would have say 50 Polling Stations from where votes have been counted and counter signed by agents.  

However, Returning officers were notorious for misreporting this polling station values when they converged at the Constituency tallying center(main towns).  So the fix was that if the counted and verified tally at the root Polling station has ALREADY been provisionally and electronically  transmitted at SOURCE to both the constituency and national level using the 3G network, then the temptation to tamper with these figures when manual paper work (form 34/36) is submitted is highly reduced.  One would really need to have a good reason why what the values transmitted electronically significantly differs with what is received manually.

Ofcourse the electronically transmission system failed and has triggered wild speculations about integrity. IEBC will have to look for a way to prove that despite this failure all went well - but perhaps the burden of proof is on the other side. For them to show that indeed things did not go well :-)

walu.

________________________________
 From: Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com>
To: jwalu at yahoo.com 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?

Complete agreement with Mark. Please see 

http://www.ljean.com/files/ABPractices.pdf

L. Jean Camp, Allan Friedman, & Warigia Bowman. "Electronic Voting
Best Practices" Summary and Report of the Voting, Vote Capture & Vote Counting Symposium, June 2-4, 2004 (Cambridge, MA).

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 3:22 AM, Mark Mwangi <mwangy at gmail.com> wrote:

The way I understand the electronic system is that it was only meant to be a public facing results platform that would give a general feel of the winners and loosers before the official figures were declared. 
>
>
>The failure of the system thus does not affect the integrity of the elections but only the PR skills of IEBC. The official results are still on form 16a i presume. 
>
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>On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 11:57 AM, Erik Hersman <erik at zungu.com> wrote:
>
>Valid question Edith.  The short answer is that only the people in Bomas can answer that question.  I'm looking forward to when they talk about it as well.
>>
>>
>>Erik Hersman
>>
>>
>>www.ushahidi.com | www.iHub.co.ke
>>www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
>>
>>
>>
>>On Mar 6, 2013, at 11:45 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.ca> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Erik,
>>>
>>>Key question, were these companies working in sync or providing services independently without a lead ensurin tgat everything works.
>>>
>>>The demo seems to have failed as per article circulated by Muthoni, why were these not addresed as the same problems were experienced during the`live show`. 
>>>
>>>Hard to understand.
>>>
>>>Why not use one integrated system?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>____________________________________
>>>From: kictanet [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca at lists.kictanet.or.ke] on behalf of Erik Hersman [erik at zungu.com]
>>>Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 1:52 AM
>>>To: Edith Adera
>>>Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
>>>Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?
>>>
>>>Agreed with Evans here.
>>>
>>>Every single tech system has problems, that IEBC does as well should be no surprise.  I've been spending last night and this morning trying to better understand how the IEBC's data flow works, their lack of clarity here is the only problem that I can find.  You can see my questions, sources and even the IEBC RFP for the system here: http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/
>>>
>>> *   Polling station uses Safaricom SIM cards »
>>> *   App installed in phone, proprietary software from IFES »
>>> *   Transmitted via Safaricom’s VPN »
>>> *   Servers hosted/managed by Next  Technologies (needs confirmation) »
>>> *   Google hosted website at http://vote.iebc.or.ke »
>>> *   Google hosted API at http://api.iebc.or.ke
>>>
>>>You'll note that, besides the IEBC itself, there are at least 4 (large) organizations that have to be in sync in order for the system to work (Safaricom, IFES, Next Technologies, and Google).  That's no small task, and as you can see by the list of companies involved, these are largely not local companies.
>>>
>>>
>>>Erik Hersman
>>>
>>>www.ushahidi.com<http://www.ushahidi.com/> | www.iHub.co.ke<http://www.ihub.co.ke/>
>>>www.whiteafrican.com<http://www.afrigadget.com/> | @whiteafrican<http://twitter.com/whiteafrican>
>>>
>>>On Mar 6, 2013, at 9:42 AM, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com<mailto:ikua.evans at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>Edith, I beg to differ. Its not ICT that has failed here. Its the processes. Just throwing some expensive servers and plenty of bandwidth at a problem will not solve it. The top leadership has to fully understand their organization's ICT strategy. They have to internalize the opportunities that technology brings to the table, as well as the inherent risks that come with it. This cannot be left to techies, however good they may be. The reason being that if the organization that you lead fails (and the reason was technology), its you who is answerable, not the techies. This is the spirit of IT Governance.
>>>
>>>It would be interesting to know if the IEBC commissioners fully understand the risks of the technologies that they are relying on.
>>>Let us not blame the technology.
>>>
>>>Evans
>>>
>>>On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.ca<mailto:eadera at idrc.ca>> wrote:
>>>Listers,
>>>
>>>It is a shame that for the first time in Kenya's history when IT is given a chance to bring credibility and efficiency in the electoral process, ICT has failed SPECTACULARLY!
>>>
>>>what went wrong?
>>>
>>>Edith
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>>>--
>>>----------------------------------------------------
>>>Kind Regards,
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>>>lanetconsulting.com<http://lanetconsulting.com/>,
>>>lpi-eastafrica.org<http://lpi-eastafrica.org/>,
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>>
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>
>
>
>-- 
>Regards,
>
>Mark Mwangi
>
>markmwangi.me.ke
>
>
>
>
>
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>The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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-- 

Dr. Warigia Bowman
Assistant Professor 
Clinton School of Public Service
University of Arkansas
wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.eduhttp://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
------------------------------------------------- 
View my research on my SSRN Author page: 
http://ssrn.com/author=1479660 
-------------------------------------------------- 

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