Activist and Founder, The People’s IEBC, Daniel Miringa, is proposing a technology-driven solution to electoral mistrust through the “People’s IEBC.”
By mobilising thousands of volunteers to capture polling station results, the system aims to ensure transparency and reduce delays in vote tallying.
The initiative highlights the growing role of citizen participation and digital tools in strengthening democratic processes and addressing voter apathy.
Speaking on Monday during a Radio Generation interview, Miringa described the “People’s IEBC” as a system developed with a group of associates to counter election rigging and restore public confidence in voting.
“So the people’s IEBC is a system I and a few of my friends have developed, and how we plan to do that is to transmit results from the polling station,” he said.
The system is designed to receive images of Form 34As, the official documents used to record presidential results at polling stations. These images would then be analysed, tallied, and published as they are received.
“We’re going to analyse them with our system that we’ve developed then we tally the results, and we’re going to publicise it as it comes in,” he explained.
Miringa said the initiative aims to eliminate what he described as a “dark period” between the announcement of results at polling stations and their official transmission.
“When you create that dark period between the transmissions, a lot of rigging can happen. But even if rigging does not happen, a lot of distrust can come when the period is very long,” he said.
He added that delays in previous elections had contributed to tension among the public, noting that “seven days created a lot of drama and tension”.
This, he argues will minimize the number of days taken for IEBC to tally and announce the winner of the presidential elections.
The project also seeks to address voter apathy by demonstrating that votes are counted and reflected transparently.
“A lot of voter apathy stems from the fact that people think their vote won’t count,” he said.
Central to the plan is the mobilisation of a nationwide network of volunteers tasked with capturing and transmitting images of results forms. The activist said the team is targeting about 22,000 participants across the country.
“These are the schools, chiefs’ camps, whatever, so we aim to mobilise 22,000 Kenyans who will transmit now the pictures,” he said.
He explained that while the number of polling stations could reach up to 55,000, several are typically located within a single registration centre, making the lower target feasible.
Recruitment is already underway, with nearly 2,000 people having registered so far.
“We are at just under 2,000 currently, so that’s about 10% and we have just 15 months, it’s possible,” he said.
The activist emphasised that the initiative relies on volunteers rather than paid staff.
“They are volunteers, they’re not getting paid. They will get lunch on that day, maybe, but it’s not guaranteed,” he noted.
To safeguard the integrity of the system, the initiative incorporates verification measures at both the registration and data submission stages.
“We are asking for some details to identify if it’s a real person behind the computer registering,” he said.
He added that uploaded images would be checked using technical markers embedded in the forms and files.
“The form has serial numbers, QR codes. The images have metadata to say where this image is from, whether it is an AI image, or has it been altered,” he said.
Concerns about coordinating thousands of volunteers nationwide were acknowledged, but he argued that technology would simplify the process.
“Technology makes it very easy,” he said. “We are not actually managing them from a day-to-day, what we just want from them is just an image.”
He added that much of the system would rely on automation rather than manual oversight.
“A lot of it is in systems and processes which are automated, so it doesn’t require someone looking at each of these 22,000 people,” he said.
The People's IEBC Founder also drew comparisons with large-scale digital platforms handling high user volumes, suggesting similar efficiencies could be applied to election monitoring.
The concept reflects a broader push towards civic technology solutions aimed at strengthening democratic accountability and increasing public trust in electoral processes.