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{
    "id": 716446,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/716446/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Identification Devices (EVIDS) came in the morning, having been delivered on the night before the election. In the morning, there was no time to charge the equipment, configure them and, therefore, in some of the polling constituencies they were not used at all. Secondly, as we speak, there are constituencies such as Banisa and Mandera where to date there is no power connection even at the headquarters, forget about polling stations. Literally, in some of the constituencies, those EVIDS were not used at all since there was no time to configure them. There was a 95 year old woman who left Eldoret to go and vote in Mandera because she wanted to vote for her people. She was not able to get her finger identified on the EVID. They tried four or five times without success. She started crying. They had to ask her to sit aside and for a few minutes she eventually had to plead and say: “If my finger is the one responsible for not allowing me to vote for the person I want, I want it to be cut off.”It was not until later that they were able to reconfigure and she was able to use her finger. I think there are challenges in some of the areas, with all due respect. The concern we have like in any other election is that if it goes to a backup system whether manual or whatever, there is a risk of stealing of votes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the same way that you are worried about stealing in a backup, there is also a possibility that votes can also be stolen when it is technologically driven or done through electronic transmission. The risk of theft is always there and not limited by technology. As we say in African tradition, one does not refuse to eat for fear of choking. We cannot say we will not have a backup system because we fear that it is going to be stolen. The second thing which I think is important is that we are talking about a complementary system. It does not talk of manual and then there are the regulations that we will come up with and a provision for consultation by political parties on the regulations. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue that surprises me in this report is that it says very clearly - I want to be very quick on this - that in the submissions that were received, there were no views submitted with respect to Clause 19 which is the most contentious. You can read this report on page three of the minutes that have been done in this. When you come to submissions by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) itself, apparently there is---"
}