Known Facts About Michael Ouma, The New IEBC’S ICT Manager
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been tasked with ensuring that every aspect of the next General Election—from voting at polling places to the digital transmission and broadcasting of results without technical glitches—will be credible and flawless.
The electoral board will use all of its resources to carry that out in order to avoid any hiccups.
The focus narrows to Michael Ouma, Director of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) of the IEBC, who is the key technical player.
Ouma took over on March 11, 2022, filling the position that had been unfilled since the enigmatic death of Chris Msando in 2017.
What is known about Michael Ouma, the person in the firing line, is as follows:
Ouma has an MBA from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Communications Engineering from Moi University.
He is a member of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM), Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Computer Society of Kenya (CSK) (ISACA).
He served as the ICT specialist at IEBC before being promoted to Director for ICT.
Ouma boasts 20 years in the IT business and 10 years managing electoral technology projects.
In 2015, he participated in a group of 11 ICT specialists educated by the IEBC and the Association of World Election Bodies under the direction of the former director of ICT and IEBC regional ICT officers around Kenya (A-WEB).
The MOU between the IEBC and A-WEB, which was signed on March 31, 2015, to improve the election processes in Kenya, was put into effect when the training was successfully completed.
Ouma and his coworkers went through a thorough and specially created training that was created to solve priority key areas that had been unanimously identified as difficulties in Kenya’s electoral ICT.
The training program gave the participants the chance to speak with electoral ICT professionals about certain pressing issues.
The training program’s main discussions included how to lessen the election technology glitches that were seen during the 2013 General Elections.