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Sharon Sinei
Sharon Sinei

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Was the 2022 Kenyan general election successful because of Blockchain technology?

With the promise of free, transparent and credible elections by the IEBC each season, Kenyans on August 2022 participated in an election that some felt delivered on all its promises while some found it quite opaque.

Is it too bold to claim that the technology that made the election unique compared to its predecessors was blockchain ? Is the use of blockchain in elections even feasible ?

Some similar features that the election incorporated that can be seen in Bitcoin's blockchain and that inspired this discussion are:

  1. Forms from polling stations being published on the IEBC website and made downloadable to all stakeholders. This mirrors the public nature of the Bitcoin ledger where all transactions can be queried and their addresses viewed by anyone.

  2. The use of biometrics to solve the issue of double voting. Bitcoin's blockchain solves the double spending problem.

  3. Once votes cast are recorded and signed by the officials, they are final, verifiable and cannot be amended. In Bitcoin, once a transaction is signed it is final.

It is clear that the IEBC designed the system to allow voters to verify all records which closely resembles Bitcoin's infrastructure.

There are differences that can be seen however.

  • Firstly, whereas the top officials of IEBC can change voter registration details and transfer voters, no admin in Bitcoin can move Bitcoin or change transactions.

  • Also, the IEBC polling station biometric devices have the full register of voters but can only allow voters registered for a specific location. In Bitcoin, one's transactions can be signed by any node on the network.

Use of blockchain in elections is still an emerging area but blockchain or not, it is safe to say that the 2022 Kenyan election was innovative and disruptive.
The success of the election was due to the Kenyan people who chose to make it successful.

What do you think could make the next election even better ?

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