How AI can restore confidence in Kenya's electoral process

Let me say it again. We, Kenyans, have repeatedly walked to the precipice of self-destruction because of contested presidential election outcomes. 

From the ashes of the 2007 post-election crisis to the historic 2017 Supreme Court nullification, our nation has paid a heavy price in blood, economic disruption, and deep voter disillusionment. Yet as we begin the slow march toward the 2027 General Election, we are once again starting on the wrong footing.

Some political leaders have shamelessly begun to trivialise our electoral systems, declaring in public rallies that they will "rig" the vote for their preferred candidates. This reckless rhetoric is not simply a threat to national cohesion. It is a direct assault on our democratic ideals. When elected leaders boast about their ability to steal an election, they undermine the very foundation of public trust and invite the chaos that has historically torn this country apart.

We need to draw a line in the sand. In this era of rapid technological advancement, we have absolutely no excuse to mess up our electoral processes. The traditional grievances that have fueled post-election violence, delayed tallying, altered physical forms, duplicate voters, and opaque transmission channels, are problems of a bygone era. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can effectively neutralise these vulnerabilities, leaving no room for manual manipulation or backroom deals. The technology exists. What remains is the political will to implement it.

Consider India's democratic exercise. With over 900 million eligible voters, India curates, transmits, and announces electoral results in the shortest time possible, maintaining exceptional public trust. They have achieved this through robust technological systems that minimise human interference at critical stages of tallying and transmission. If a nation of nearly a billion people can secure its vote, Kenya has no justification for failing its about 20 million voters.

The solution lies in a symbiotic relationship between advanced technology and institutional oversight. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should operate as an impartial, human-centric overseer, utilising AI as a shield against fraud. Rather than replacing human judgment, AI shoud serve to automate the most vulnerable parts of the electoral pipeline.

First, AI-driven optical character recognition and computer vision can instantly audit physical tallying forms scanned at polling stations against digital data transmitted to the national tallying centre. Any discrepancy, altered signature, or mathematical anomaly would get flagged automatically in seconds, preventing the "irregularities and illegalities" that forced the Supreme Court to nullify the 2017 presidential election. This technology is operational in multiple democracies today.

Second, AI makes it cheaper and easier to execute real-time tracking of voting outcomes. By integrating secure, public-facing AI dashboards, the IEBC can allow citizens, civil society, and media houses to track tallying trends in real time with absolute transparency. When voters can see the data flowing transparently and verified by automated audits, the room for conspiracy theories and anxiety, which often trigger physical violence, shrinks dramatically.

Furthermore, AI-driven deduplication algorithms can clean the national voter register, ensuring that phantom voters and duplicate registrations are permanently erased. This eliminates another primary ground for post-election petitions and disputes before the Supreme Court.

Technology is no longer a luxury. It is a democratic imperative. Our leaders can stop treating elections as a game of who can steal better, and the IEBC can reject the defeatist attitude that electoral malpractice is inevitable. By deploying targeted AI systems under strict, impartial human oversight, we can secure the integrity of every ballot. The cost of implementing these technologies is a fraction of the economic and human toll of post-election violence.

The IEBC has a unique opportunity to lead Africa in electoral innovation. By deploying AI systems transparently and allowing citizens to verify results in real time, the commission can restore public confidence that decades of electoral disputes have eroded.

Dr Mokua is the Executive Director, Loyola Centre for Media and Communication