The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is under renewed pressure to demonstrate the credibility of the 2027 General Election after claims by UDA Secretary-General Hassan Omar that dead Kenyans could be used to vote for President William Ruto triggered a political storm.
The remarks have drawn sharp criticism from opposition leaders, forced the electoral commission to respond publicly and added to a growing debate over the security of the voters’ register and the technology that will be used in the next election.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has demanded that IEBC summon Mr Omar to explain his remarks, saying statements touching on the integrity of the election should not be left unanswered.
Speaking in Kabuchai Constituency on Saturday, September 12, Sifuna said IEBC should take action against the UDA official after reports that he had suggested fingerprints of deceased Kenyans could be used to cast votes for President Ruto in 2027.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has also challenged IEBC chairman Erastus Ethekon to explain the remarks.
“I don’t know whether you have seen. They are saying that even dead voters will vote. And Ethekon is quiet,” Gachagua said while addressing Kenyans in Oregon in the United States.
He demanded that the IEBC chairman explain “what is the UDA Secretary General saying” and identify the alleged dead voters.
Gachagua linked the controversy to a separate dispute over voter registration at Kenyatta University, where a viral video alleged that some students were being registered in Wajir despite being based in Nairobi.
“We saw the other day people being registered and taken to Wajir,” he said, arguing that such incidents could result in voters arriving at polling stations only to discover that their names were not on the expected register.
IEBC has rejected the suggestion that voters were being transferred from Kenyatta University to Wajir.
The commission said registration kits had been deployed to strategic locations, including universities, to facilitate voter registration. It clarified that voter transfers can only be undertaken at IEBC constituency offices and said it was working with security agencies to investigate the allegations contained in the viral video.
The commission has also pushed back against the suggestion that dead people could simply be authenticated and allowed to vote through the biometric system.
IEBC Commissioner Alutalala Mukhwana said the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) does not rely on fingerprints alone, but also uses iris recognition.
“No votes will be stolen,” Mukhwana said, adding that KIEMS uses both fingerprint and iris recognition to verify voters.
The controversy has nevertheless opened a wider political conversation about the voters’ register, electoral technology and the safeguards IEBC will put in place before Kenyans vote in August 2027.
It comes at a time when a coalition led by former Chief Justice David Maraga is demanding sweeping changes to the electoral process.
The People’s Coalition on Electoral Reforms has called for an overhaul of the voters’ register and changes to presidential results management, including the abolition of the national tallying centre at Bomas of Kenya.
“There shall be no tallying centre at Bomas or elsewhere,” Mr Maraga said on Tuesday, arguing that IEBC should not alter or re-tally presidential results already declared at polling stations and constituencies.
The coalition says the proposed reforms are necessary before the 2027 election and has also demanded greater scrutiny of election technology and stronger safeguards around the voters’ register.
The proposals have already triggered resistance from within the government.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale questioned how results from thousands of polling stations would be aggregated if the national tallying centre was abolished.
“Who will do the aggregation of the results from the thousands of polling stations across the country?” Duale asked in a post on X on Wednesday.
The debate over the register has also been intensified by the Kenyatta University incident, which is now being investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The DCI has questioned a student leader who recorded the viral footage, while investigators seek to establish what happened and whether anyone was involved in an attempt to improperly register voters. The claims in the video have not been independently verified.
IEBC has maintained that deploying voter-registration kits to universities is part of its normal operations and does not in itself indicate wrongdoing. The commission has said it will act against anyone found culpable.
The succession of controversies has placed the electoral commission at the centre of an increasingly heated debate over preparations for the 2027 election.
