Infotrak CEO Angela Ambitho says despite the challenges faced during the 2013 elections, at least half of Kenyans said they have faith that IEBC is able to conduct credible elections in future/FILE
Infotrak CEO Angela Ambitho says despite the challenges faced during the 2013 elections, at least half of Kenyans said they have faith that IEBC is able to conduct credible elections in future.
The highest level of confidence was in Central and Rift Valley at 78 and 73 percent respectively, while Nyanza recorded 14 percent approval.
“But where is the lack of confidence highest? A half of those in Nairobi are not confident with IEBC, 70 percent in Nyanza and 50 percent in Coast. Generally, the regions that were strongholds our President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto are happy, while the rest are not,” Ambitho said while presenting the study to journalists on Sunday.
“There has to be confidence from all regions for IEBC to manage future elections,” Ambitho pointed out.
Those who didn’t think the election was free and fair attributed it to inefficiency in managing the process.
Ten percent of registered voters found their names were missing from the register when they went to vote, while another 18 percent said they were inconvenienced by a mix- up of their names in the register.
The highest anomalies with regards to names missing in register were witnessed in North Eastern where almost 2 in every 10 registered voters found their names missing.
“There seem to have been fewer anomalies witnessed in Central, Rift Valley and upper Eastern. Could this be attributed to preparedness of IEBC in these regions? Could it be that they were very happy with the results to the point that they were not willing to criticise the results? I don’t know,” she said.
Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 10 voters indicated that they witnessed or know of people who voted without the pertinent documents with highest anomalies being in Western, North Eastern and the Coast region.
“This is something that should be looked into keenly. Some may say the commission was overwhelmed by the elections or there was a huge voter turnout. We don’t know. But such things should be watched and corrected if they indeed happened.”
On the other hand 25 percent witnessed people leaving the polling station without voting due to frustration over the slow process with the highest number, 52 percent being at the Coastal region.
The study was conducted between May 24 to 28 with a sample of 2,343 respondents.
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