***IEBC owes me one***

When powerful forces conspired and kicked me out of participating as a presiding officer in the just concluded General Elections, I warned here that such an action would affect the credibility of election results in Mwisho wa Lami.


Little did I know that my absence would be felt not only here but all over the country. You see, to successfully run credible, complicated and digital elections in this era and age, you need to hire people like me; people who are advanced both digitally, academically and intellectually.
To have our AEO and HM as presiding officer and deputy presiding officer, respectively, was a big mistake, as these two had never used a laptop before in their lives, even just to charge their phone. That alone made me very worried.
Two days before the elections, the AEO sent me a text asking to meet me urgently. I thought about ignoring him, but after consulting Saphire, I decided to meet him.
“The AEO has never liked Juma,” Saphire said. “Maybe he wants to promote you. Make sure he gives you something substantial.”
We met at Kanungo, Mwisho wa Lami’s latest bar that is giving Cosmos a run for its money.
Usually, teachers buy the AEO drinks, but on this day, our AEO was the one buying. There was no taking Keg, I had to take the most expensive drink available. I took Alsops.
Clearly, he had an issue that he wanted to tell me but he seemed not to have enough courage to tell me. It wasn’t until he was on his third beer that he was able to speak.
“Dre, I really need your assistance,” he started. “Although you must swear that you will never tell anyone.”
I assured him that I wouldn’t.
“I may need your assistance on Monday during elections. We will be using a laptop and you know I’m not so good with the laptop.”
“I will be available should you need me,” I told him. I almost asked him about the promotion but decided to wait for the right moment.
On Monday morning, I woke up early but did not go to vote straight away as I had planned to pass by Hitler’s first. But news reached me that voting had not even begun as IEBC officials were having challenges setting up. I thought of going there to assist, but decided to wait until I was called. I received a text message from Juma, the HM, at around 8am.
“Dre, AEO talked to you yesterday. Please assist us with word pass.”
I did not know what he meant and so I called him.
We still did not understand each other and so I went to the polling station. I found most of the villagers queuing to vote, although no voting had began. They were angry.
“Dre, enda ufunze hawa watu kazi,” said Rasto.
The AEO and HM were quite relieved to see me.
“Dre, we cannot begin anything since we had forgotten the word pass of this laptop,” Mr Juma said.
“No, it is not the password, it is the name to use,” said the AEO.
The policeman tried to stop me but the presiding officer told him that I was a senior IT consultant. The computer clerk told me that he had forgotten the password. I could not believe that such a small problem could cause such delays. I was sure my Bookface password would work, so I keyed it in. It was rejected.
Together with the clerk, we called a senior IEBC official and with my guidance, he was able to successfully get into the system. It’s only after this that voting started in Mwisho wa Lami. The clerk had problems using the laptop and the AEO asked me to stick around just in case they needed my assistance.
I hovered around the polling station and used the opportunity to assist some of the illiterate voters — and they were many. I then left for Hitler’s, but the AEO called me at around 11 am.
“Dre, our BVR laptops are about to go off as the battery is finished,” he said. “Please bring yours so that we can use it.”
I went home and got my laptop. By the time I arrived, the IEBC laptop was minutes away from going off. The AEO was happy to see me and asked the clerk to use mine.
“No, we can’t use any other laptop as it doesn’t have the required software,” the clerk told the AEO.
“My laptop has so many hard softwares. I’m sure one of them is what IEBC is using,” I said.
“Which softwares do you have?” the clerk asked.
“Many,” I answered. “They include Microsoft, Words, Excess, Excellent, Media, Players, Desktop, Google, Toshiba, and Antivirus among others. Which software do you want?”
The clerk said that none of the softwares I had mentioned could be used. The AEO however asked me to switch on the laptop but after several attempts, the clerk declared that it could not be used. As a result, the rest of the people voted manually.
I left the polling centre at around 3pm to go back to Hitler’s, but the AEO told me to return at 5pm to help them in counting.
I had all along known that counting of the votes would be a problem since the teachers who had been assigned to our polling station were only good in Kiswahili and Social Studies. I told the HM that I would be at Kanungo, so he could send someone to call me when ready.
My phone went off due to lack of battery and it was around 6pm that Bedford, my Sister Yunia’s son, came looking for me at Kanungo.
“The EAO wants to see you emergently,” Bedford said.
I wasted no time going to the polling station. I found the AEO and HM confused about how to proceed with vote counting quickly.
I devised a method where every individual around held 10 votes after which we multiplied these with the number of people holding votes.
This method proved useful and we were ready with the presidential votes at around 10pm. The AEO tried to communicate these results using a phone he had been given by the IEBC but he could not.
“Why don’t we email the results?” I asked the AEO. “It will be faster.”
“Exactly, go bring the laptop.”
I immediately brought the laptop, connected it to the website and typed a short letter with the results to be sent to IEBC.
“What email address do we sent the results to?” I asked the AEO. It was then that he said he did not know the email address. In fact I doubt he understood what an email address was. Luckily for him, by then, he was able to SMS his results.
I helped them count the remaining results but I left at 3 am to sleep. The AEO could not send subsequent results and as a result, decided to walk to the tallying centres to transmit them. But I am quite sure that had he given me the phone, I would have been able to transmit the result.
We met at Hitler’s every day after this to listen and analyse the final results and that is when it became clear that what had happened at our polling station was experienced in many other stations in Kenya.
“Imagine kamaDre hangekuwa,” said Rasto. “Tungekuwa hatujapiga kura.” Everybody agreed with him.
“I hope in the next elections or running off, the IEBC will insist on hiring qualified people like Dre,” said Saphire. “They are really missing his professional services.”
I hope someone at IEBC is reading this.