People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua has criticised the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for barring voters from carrying mobile phones into polling stations, terming the move unlawful and beyond the Commission’s mandate.
Speaking during an interview with Radio Generation on Friday, Karua said the IEBC has no legal basis to impose a blanket restriction on voters and warned that such directives risk overstepping its authority.
“The Commission has no power to make new laws. It can only apply existing ones, and the law does not stop anyone from entering a polling station with a phone,” she said. “The only place you can say don’t go with a mobile phone, but go with it, but don’t take a photo, is in the polling booth.”
Karua explained that election laws only protect the secrecy of the ballot within the voting booth, not the entire polling centre. She argued that extending the restriction to all areas of the polling station misinterprets the law.
She maintained that voters are free to carry their phones as long as they do not photograph their marked ballot papers. According to her, polling agents stationed near voting areas can easily identify and stop anyone attempting to take such photos.
The PLP leader also dismissed claims that mobile phones are widely used to facilitate voter bribery, saying only a small number of individuals misuse them.
“The number of people who abuse that by taking photos of their ballot to show others for money is very few,” she said.
Karua urged the IEBC to focus on enforcing existing electoral laws rather than introducing new conditions not provided for in legislation.
Her remarks come days after the electoral body enforced a ban on mobile phones within polling stations during by-elections held on February 26, 2026, in Isiolo South, West Kabras, Muminji, and Evurore wards.
