Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairperson Erastus Ethekon (centre), flanked by fellow commissioners, addresses the media at Pride Inn Paradise in Shanzu, Mombasa County on July 19, 2025.
The Sh7 billion out of a total budget of Sh61.74 billion that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) plans to spend on buying technology for the 2027 General Election is raising eyebrows, with MPs summoning the commission to break down the projections.
The Sh7 billion, however, excludes Sh2.6 billion that the commission requires for the upgrade and maintenance of the election systems.
Ahead of the election, the commission, chaired by Mr Erustus Ethekon, plans to spend the funds to buy Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) kits to replace the 45,352 kits.
The kits were bought in 2017 for the General Election and with the reality that the technology is likely to be obsolete after 10 years, it means the commission has no choice but to procure new election gadgets.
This means that only the 14,000 Kiems kits purchased in 2022 will be retained for use.
The country requires 59,352 Kiems kits with 3,959 reserved for training.
Tharaka MP Gitonga Murugara, who chairs the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) in the National Assembly, says the cost of elections is a matter that concerns “every citizen of this country.”
Tharaka Member of Parliament Gitonga Murugara.
“Now that the IEBC commissioners are in office, we will make a follow-up,” said Mr Murugara.
The planned JLAC meeting with the IEBC will be the first since the commissioners took oath of office on July 11, 2025.
Kiems kits have a biometric voter registration system that is used to electronically capture voters’ facial image, fingerprints and civil data, used to verify voters’ identification to curb impersonation.
The kits also have a system that enables poll officers to transmit election results through specially configured mobile devices.
The gadgets have high-capacity internal batteries and portable power banks capable of carrying it through the voting and transmission of results.
On February 25, 2025, JLAC had directed the IEBC secretariat headed by Marjan Hussein Marjan, to prepare and submit to the committee a comprehensive expert report on the status of the current Kiems kits so as to guide the committee provide the required budget towards general election preparations.
At the time, the team was considering the 2025 Budget Policy Statement (BPS).
However, on Saturday, Mr Murugara confirmed that the commission is yet to provide the document to enable the committee make “a sound judgment” on a matter that is so critical to the country.
“The report has not yet been submitted. If done, it has not reached the committee,” said Mr Murugara.
Mr Marjan, who at the time acted as the head of the commission, did not respond to our inquiries with Mr Ethekon undertaking to provide the information as required by the committee.
This comes even as National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi noted that the cost of elections in Kenya is too high and that something needs to be done. “The IEBC budget should be efficient. We are going to ask tough questions to enable them to use public funds efficiently,” Mr Mbadi said during a meeting with MPs as he challenged the commission to be prudent in the management of public funds.
The Sh7.04 billion required for Kiems kits, is part of the Sh61.74 billion that IEBC needs to prepare for the 2027 general election to be funded over three financial years- 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28.
The budget plan, which is Sh55 billion funded by the National Treasury, serves as a baseline assumption to be used in preparation of the 2027 poll.
Although the commission had proposed Sh15.3 billion of the entire budget be front loaded to the 2025/2026 financial year to facilitate pre-election activities “mainly voter registration and acquisition of the election technology software and hardware,” Sh9.33 billion was approved by the National Assembly.
During the financial year 2026/2027, the commission has budgeted for Sh25.4 billion while the 2027/28 fiscal period it has Sh21 billion.
IEBC projects to register additional 5.7 million new voters, the majority being youth who have attained the age of majority for the 2027 general election.
The commission also plans to gazette 55,393 polling stations up from the 46,229 used in the 2022 election.
At a previous meeting with JLAC, the electoral agency’s deputy commission secretary in charge of Support Services Obadiah Keitany, revealed that the Kiems bought in 2017 will not be thrown away as they can be reused elsewhere.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC deputy CEO Obadiah Keitany.
“The Kiems kits have been in use for 10 years and can be formatted and donated to another government institution for use. Technology has changed fast and we cannot rely on them now,” Mr Keitany said.
Questions over election expenses come as it emerged that the last three polls under the 2010 Constitution have cost the country at least Sh121 billion.
For instance, it cost the country Sh42.6 billion to conduct the 2022 general election against the Sh49.9 billion as sought by IEBC.
In 2017 the general election cost Kenyans Sh53.5 billion against the Sh61.8 billion that had been budgeted by IEBC, with the 2013 poll costing Sh24.3 billion against the commission’s budget of Sh24.7 billion.
MPs Otiende Amollo (Rarieda) and Mwengi Mutuse (Kibwezi West), JLAC members, recently raised issues about the funds required for the procurement of the Kiems kits, as Dadaab MP Farah Maalim justified the need for new kits.
“I am concerned about the Kiems kits. It can be 15 or 20 years as long as it works,” said Dr Amollo, with Mr Mutuse saying, “what is the need of replacing the kits when they are able to work?”
Mr Maalim, vouching for the replacement of the kits, noted that technology gets old and must be replaced for credibility purposes “in the case of a general election.”
“Technology becomes obsolete and we need a new one for a proper election,” said Mr Maalim. “That we (want to) stick with technology procured 10 years ago, worries me.” According to Mr Maalim, politicians are happy with a system that doesn’t work so that they can steal.
“We want state-of-the-art technology that is foolproof. Do not recycle something that has been there for more than 10 years,” said the Dadaab MP.
Despite the cost, the safety of the Kiems kits remains at stake.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has previously questioned thefts of Kiems kits as captured in her audit report on the accounts of IEBC for the financial year 2020/21.
An IEBC response presented to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly in 2023, revealed how the commission lost election equipment worth billions of shillings that contained crucial election data in areas considered ODM leader Raila Odinga’s strongholds.
The document presented by Mr Marjan listed Kisumu County warehouse and Muhoroni, Emuhaya, Karachuonyo, Kajiado North and Nyando as the affected constituencies in the theft.
The theft, according to Mr Marjan, may have happened on diverse dates between 2013 and 2021 and includes the loss of 952 Electronic Voter Identification System (EVID) laptops, 125 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits, and 1,315 hard disks.
In some instances, the theft occurred just after the mass registration of voters in some areas and just a few months to the 2022 general election.
For instance, at Kisumu County warehouse, 952 EVID laptops were stolen, four laptops and two power cables in Emuhaya, two laptops in Nyando, 31 BVR laptops and 45 chargers in Karachuonyo and two dell laptops and a CVR server in Kajiado North constituency.
In Muhoroni constituency one Dell laptop, a heavy-duty military grade suitcase, two fingerprint scanners, three flash disks, back pack, laptop charger, two Logitech cameras and a USB hub were stolen in 2021, months to the August 9, 2022, general election.
There were also thefts of 21 Dell laptops and four generators in Tharaka Nithi, Marakwet West constituency, where 26 EVIDS were lost and Nandi County Warehouse- 41 laptops, 10 fingerprint scanners, seven logistics cameras, 104 rechargeable batteries, three generators and 23 full BVR kits.
