Balancing the Scales of Electoral Justice criticism.”41 IREC in particular deprecated the use of the manual register, then known as the ‘Black Book,’ in the 2007 election, on the ground that it created a fertile ground for “electoral malpractice.”42 In its stead and to minimize voting malpractices, IREC recommended the compilation, by the biometric voter registration (BVR) system,43 of a single national register for use in subsequent elections.44 Following this recommendation, IEBC compiled an electronically based register, which it successfully used on a pilot basis in the 2010 referendum in some parts of the country. As is common knowledge, in the 2013 general elections, the electronic voter identification device (EVID), based on BVR completely collapsed forcing IEBC to resort to the manual register, known as the Green Book, for identification of voters. This later formed the basis of a serious contestation in Raila Odinga & Others v. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & Others,45 on the authenticity of the voter register used in the 2013 general elections which would have been obviated had a secure BVR register been compiled pursuant to the IREC recommendation, and proper scrutiny facilitated and carried out prior to elections.46 Given the ethnic and highly factional Kenyan political landscape, IEBC cannot afford to have an oscillating voters register and leave room for allegations of its manipulation. To minimize multiple voter registrations and voting, IEBC should develop a proper BVR register in good time, avail it for public scrutiny, and obtain a secure EVID. Pursuant to IREC’s other recommendation of electronic transmission of results from polling stations as a parallel record against which the manual records of results would be verified and thus authenticated,47 IEBC should also obtain functional devises for electronic transmission of election results from the polling stations to its national database. 41 Independent Review Commission Report (IREC) The 2007 General Elections in Kenya ch III, (2008), 32. 42 Independent Review Commission Report (IREC) The 2007 General Elections in Kenya ch III, (2008), 32. 43 A BVR register would electronically capture the voters’ fingerprints and eliminate double voting and personating frauds. J Harrington and A Manji (2015) ‘Restoring Leviathan? The Kenya Supreme Court, Constitutional transformation, and presidential election of 2013,’ (2015) Journal of Eastern African Studies, 9:2, 175-192, DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2015.1029296.. 45 Raila Odinga case [2013] eKLR. 46 In the Raila Odinga case, the petitioner accused IEBC of maintaining an oscillating voter’s register. It was claimed that at the close of the voter registration process on 18 December 2012 the figure for the total number of registered voters was given as 14,333,339 while the figure later gazetted was 14,352,445. At one stage, the number of the registered voters on the Special Register was given as 31,318 and at another as 36,236. 47 J Harrington and A Manji (2015) ‘Restoring Leviathan? The Kenya Supreme Court, Constitutional transformation, and presidential election of 2013,’ (2015) Journal of Eastern African Studies, 9:2, 175-192, DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2015.1029296. 44 249