Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom ready for election network coverage

Three leading Mobile Network Operators (MNOS) Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom have assured the country that they are ready to provide the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with a secure network coverage come August 8 General Election.

The 3G and 4G network coverage provided by the three MNOs will be paramount to the electoral agency’s electronic transmission of results.

In a joint statement on Sunday, August 6, the MNOs together with IEBC acknowledge the fact that their main responsibility is to “provide a secure conduit to transmit the encrypted results between the polling stations and the IEBC’s data center which is the National Tallying Center in Nairobi”.

“The IEBC has entered into standard level agreement(s) with the MNOs, to support IEBC to deliver on its constitutional duty to the nation,” said the MNOs in a statement.

The Wafula Chebukati-led commission has since divided the country into zones with respective MNOs in a bid to further ensure that the electronic transmission of results does not fail.

According to the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA), electronic transmission of results is paramount to the credibility of this year’s election.

“The IEBC has provided its own independent equipment and servers, on both ends of the transmission chain, i.e., the sending and receiving ends of the transmission process.  The IEBC remains wholly responsible and in-charge of operationalisation and security of its equipment and servers during this time,” said IEBC Chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, in a statement.