A Look at the $770 MorphoTablet 2 in Use by Kenya’s Electoral Body for 2017 General Elections

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Kenya’s electoral body, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), appointed Safran Identity & Security, an identity and security solutions company, to provide the technology that will power the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) for the general elections that will feature six major elections, including the presidential election.

Following this appointment, the IEBC was issued with more than 45,000 MorphoTablet 2 units, from Safran, to be used in the verification and authentication of voters with their fingerprints and photo. The tablet is also said to be used in the “secure transmission of the voter turnout data and election results.”

The MorphoTablet 2 that will feature prominently in the Kenyan elections was released late last year and comes with the following specifications:

  • An 8-inch WXGA (800*1280) display
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16GB internal storage expandable via Micro SD Card
  • A 5100mAh battery said to last upto 24hours
  • 13MP main camera and a 2MP front camera
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Optical fingerprint reader
  • Contact and Contactless smart card reader capabilities
  • Dual SIM support with 4G voice and data support
  • Android 5.0 Lollipop

The tablet also has security features such as hardware secure boot and tamper protection. The display is also capable of capturing signatures with a stylus.

All these features don’t come cheap as our research has shown that the MorphoTablet 2 retails for around $770 (approximately Ksh.79000) per piece. Damn!

7 COMMENTS

  1. Expensive,but consolation is they can be put to other uses after elections.Collecting data and weeding out ghost workers!

  2. I don’t see how those specs justify that price tag, unless the software maybe does?

    • It’s specifically hardened, also this is not a high volume, very standardized product, which increases price.

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