No ballot papers will be printed in Braille – Chebukati

 

Blow to the visually-impaired voters as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) has announced there will be no ballot papers printed in braille

This means that the visually impaired will not have the option of voting independently.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati however, said that the commission will avail trained personnel to assist them during the August polls.

“In this coming election, we are not going to have braille material in the form of ballot papers. As a commission we have actually moved a step ahead like we have voter education material in braille,” he said.

Chebukati further revealed that despite the commission’s efforts to make the polls more inclusive for persons with disabilities, they were not factored into the election’s budget.

According to the  World Health Organisation (WHO) out of the 39 million people living with blindness globally, 224,000 are Kenyans.

It further revealed that 750,000 other Kenyans, from the  39 million, are suffering from severe vision impairment.

IEBC deputy Commission secretary operations Ruth Kulundu noted that only presiding officers will be allowed to assist in the exercise.

“The presiding officer is trained in such a way that the vote will be kept secret, only the agent will stand behind just to listen in to what the presiding officer will ask the voter for example which candidate to select,” she added.

However, the IEBC  assured that the braille ballot papers will be introduced in future elections.

“We shall factor it in our budget and in future elections we shall ensure that we have braille material especially ballot papers, if we will still be using them,” Chebukati added.

Last year, a candidate for one of the positions of commissioner at IEBC wanted a percentage of ballot papers to be in braille to cater for visually impaired voters.

Simeon Pkiyach told the selection panel recruiting four members of the electoral body that visually impaired Kenyans should be able to cast their vote without assistance.    BY THE STAR