Kenya May Become The Next African Country To Use Blockchain Technology For Electoral Processes, After Sierra Leone

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya (IEBC) in an article published yesterday expresses plans to use blockchain tech to offer live results and in this way enhance vote integrity and trust in the voting procedure for the forthcoming election in the country.

African countries, this time around cannot be omitted when talking about the early adopters of the blockchain system. There are many facts out there one can attribute to this, but for the purpose of this topic, I will just mention a few. We must have heard of the step taken by the Binance firm to extend it’s services to Africa by setting up an office branch in Uganda. The Ugandan govt. didn’t fight over this decision, rather they embraced the opportunity with both hands.

How about Sierra Leone, the first African Country to have ever used the blockchain technology to conduct it’s Presidential election in 2018? This report was however published by TechCrunch in Mid-March of this year.

Currently, we are talking about Kenya trying to take the same step as Sierra Leone in their forthcoming presidential election. In a speech with the IEBC director, Wafula Chebukati said that the innovation will be utilized to give presidential competitors secure access to live outcomes as the nation battles to bring to an end the violent struggles of 2007 and 2017 elections which saw hundreds slaughtered and several thousands displaced.

Meanwhile, the country before now, is already known as one of the first African Country to have hosted the most successful technology hubs in the continent, the hub known as “Silicon Savannah”.

If their plans work out as expected, Kenya would end up becoming one of the world’s first government-level blockchain adopters and it would turn into the second African nation to utilize blockchain tech to some degree in its electoral exercise after Sierra Leone in 2018. Apart from utilizing the new tech in their electoral system, the Kenyan Govt. is looking forward to deploy blockchain technology in the country’s land registry.