[kictanet] Call for input into Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and Election Offences (Amendment) Bill 2017

Wed Oct 4 10:10:11 EAT 2017

Dear Grace,

I  object to the amendments . I have gone through the bill and found
some of the amendments to be ill advised. I think we should always
uphold the spirit of the law other than the letter of the law. For
instance when we say that in the event manual transmission defers from
electronic transmission the manual transmission will carry the day yet
we know basic principles of computing such as Garbage in Garbage out
(GIGO) or What You See is What you get (WYSWYG) it shows that the
processes and use of electronic system as supplementary aids is
misunderstood why should we entertain a situation where the input
differs from the output. Electronic aids only make the system more
efficient and effective they don't alter results unless there is
interference.

On another note, we have new members of parliament who are just being
inducted, it would therefore be untrue to claim that they have
understood the election management system and processes which have
taken time  to develop and now want to dismantle it to suit temporary
political interests , i think we should uphold the interests of the
country first and i would urge our elected leaders to be at the fore
front of this effort. The election laws might not be perfect but it
would be prudent to have a consensus based approach of scrutinizing
any weak areas and addressing the same based on merit.

Finally and in my humble opinion, in as much as we have deployed
technology and used technology to make many advances in different
spheres of our nation, we are yet to fully embrace and intergrate
Information Technology Governance principles and practices in our
institutions be they public or private. I think this is our archilles
heel and this are the issues that might need to be addressed. We
deploy good systems but lack the manners to use the same correctly let
alone protect the data under our custody. A data protection act will
help resolve some of this challenges we are trying to resolve
politically, the election laws amendment bill is just a red herring,
technology is here to stay and will continue affecting every aspect of
our lives if we don't address IT, IT will address us politically and
socially sooner than later.

Regards

Best Regards

On 10/3/17, Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) via kictanet
<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> Hi all,
> There is a lot to say about the substance of the proposed law but I think
> the process is ill advised. There should be no amendments to the law given
> the very limited time period  before the rerun.
> And although we have been invited because we care about technology, I would
> like to believe that we also care about the nation. We shall achieve very
> little in terms of building trust in our processes and institutions in such
> a rushed process. Shelve this law.
>
>
> On 2 Oct 2017 16:57, "Grace Githaiga via kictanet" <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Listers
>>
>> Greetings!
>>
>>
>> KICTANet has been invited on Thursday October 5, 2017, to a meeting of
>> the
>> select committees on Election laws 2017. Considering that there will be
>> many other groups participating, we would like to present a memorandum
>> containing our specific concerns as they pertain to tech issues.
>>
>> Further, we realize that the time is too short to hold a moderated debate
>> and therefore would like to hear from you on specific tech issues. We
>> have
>> to do this by *Wednesday October 4, 2017 at** 2 p.m. *Thereafter, I and
>> Kanini Mutemi will collate the views in readiness for Thursday. In
>> addition, it would be good for those who participated in the KICTANet
>> observation mission on August 8, 2017 to also attend this Thursday
>> meeting.
>>
>> We attach the two bills, and would like to draw your attention to:
>>
>> 1. Election Laws (Amendment) Bill
>>
>>    - Clause 6 (Electronic AND manual transmission of presidential
>>    election results, with manual taking precedence).
>>    - Clause 7 (Substantially amends Section 44 of the Elections Act which
>>    prescribes the use of technology in the conduct of elections).
>>    - Clause 8 (Amends Section 44A on use of a complementary mechanism for
>>    identification of voters).
>>    - Clause 9 (Amends Section 83 on the effect of non-compliance).
>>    - Clause 11 (Criminal liability for failing to sign documents).
>>
>> 2. Election Offences (Amendment) Bill-
>>
>>    - Clause 2 (Amends Election Offences Act to allow the government to
>>    publish advertisements on its achievements during the election
>> period).
>>
>>
>> Kindlyprovide your input by providing which clause you think is
>> problematic, what your concerns are, and the recommendations.
>>
>> Asanteni sana.
>>
>> Rgds
>> Grace
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------------------
>>
>> *Grace Githaiga*
>>
>> Twitter: @ggithaiga
>>
>> Skype: gracegithaiga
>>
>> Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga
>>
>>
>> .*..**the most important office in a democracy is the citizen. So, you
>> see, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you!----Barrack Obama.*
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>

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