The Kenyan elections have been nothing but free and fair, with every cycle being marred by irregularities and electoral malpractices.
However, this may soon be a thing of the past if an invention during the African Law festival is adopted and implemented. Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, Julius Mirii, a lawyer and member of a group known as Geeks for Geeks, said they were made up of Keith Martin, Gershon Ng’ang’a, Solomon Kimonyo, Andiatsi, and Bowen.
‘Mirii narrated that the team developed a system that uses Artificial Intelligence to count the votes immediately after being cast at polling centres.
It also reduces the human labour required during an electoral period. “The solution incorporates AI and blockchain. Once you arrive at a polling station and you are given a ballot paper. Once you’ve marked candidate A as your favourite, it is immediately passed through a scanner and immediately the vote is counted. It reduces human labour so far as vote counting is concerned,”he said.
Tested and proven to work Mirii added that being timely distinguishes their system from various electronic voting forms being used worldwide. The system was tested during the festival, and the group emerged victors, defeating many teams across Africa.
He explained that he wouldn’t want to take all the credit for their work, choosing to recognise the other members’ contributions. “This was a team as it was not a one-man team made up of my colleagues such as Keith Martin, Gerishon Ng’ang’a, Solomon Kimonyo, Ms Andiatsi, and Bowen. It was made up of a team of seven people.
We would like to see it used by corporate to reduce the interference by human labour so long as the election process is concerned,”added the legal compliance specialist.
