Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party on Monday rushed to court and filed a petition challenging IEBC's use of the manual voter register.

In the petition, UDA claims the use of the manual register as a backup to the electronic voter register will interfere with the integrity of the August 9 General Election.

"The integrity of the general elections is likely to be compromised by the possibility of misuse of the manual voter register during elections since a manual register lacks safeguards of enhancing the credibility of elections," UDA says in the papers filed in court.

UDA argues that serious confusion is likely to be witnessed unless the High Court lifts its August 4 order allowing IEBC to use the manual register as a backup for identifying voters.


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"There will be the apparent and real likelihood of a serious conflict and confusion in terms of enforcement and implementation of law pertaining to the mode of identification of voters during the forthcoming general elections," went on the court papers.

UDA Secretary General Veronica Maina argues that the High Court erred in its decision to order the electoral body to apply the manual voter register in the forthcoming election.

UDA argues the Appellate Court, in an August 4, 2017 ruling, directed IEBC to use the printed voters register only when the KIEMS kits completely fail with no chance of repair or replacement.

"The learned Judge erred in fact and in law by failing to appreciate that section 44 of the Elections Act imposes the mandatory use of technology during the election exercise," it added.

Similarly, Ruto’s party alleges that Regulation 69 (1) of the Elections (General) Regulations (e) bar the use of a manual voter list to identify voter, only as an accounting document.

However, this comes only days after DP Ruto said his party and alliance, Kenya Kwanza, was prepared for the election no matter which register IEBC was going to use to identify voters.

“We are ready for this election; with a manual register, without a manual register, with whatever register. We’re ready for the election, no matter the register – whether it’s handwritten or typed!” Ruto said during a press conference at his Karen official residence on Saturday morning.