Supreme Court orders IEBC to allow Raila Odinga access to election results servers

The Supreme Court has ordered the electoral commission to give Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition’s Raila Odinga access to any servers that may have been used for storing and transmitting voting information from polling stations.

The court also directed the commission to give Mr Odinga and some of the other presidential election petitioners access to ballot boxes for 15 polling stations for inspection, scrutiny and recount of votes.

All ballot boxes

The polling stations are Nandi Hills and Sinendeti primary schools, and Tinderet Conmo in Nandi County; Belgut, Kapsuser and Chepkutum primary schools in Kericho County; Jomvu, Mikindani, Ministry of Water, Mvita and Majengo primary schools in Mombasa County; and Jarok, Gathanji and Kiheo primary schools in Nyandarua County.

Mr Odinga had wanted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ordered to deliver all ballot boxes in Bomet, Nandi, Kiambu, Kericho, Kirinyaga and Nyeri counties for scrutiny and recount.

Access to servers

Petitioners to be given access to the servers include Mr Odinga’s running mate Martha Karua, Youth Advocacy for Africa (YAA), Mr Peter Kirika, Mr Khelef Khalifa, Mr George Osewe, Ms Ruth Mumbi and Ms Grace Kamau.

The court orders stemmed from their allegations that IEBC’s election technology was penetrated and deliberately compromised by non-commission staff.

“The information sought is critical to demonstrate that IEBC did not conduct a free, fair, secure, verifiable, accountable and transparent presidential election,” the applicants told the court.

The IEBC was also ordered to provide the petitioners with copies of its technology system security policy and information on the system users and levels of access, workflow chats for identification, tallying, transmission and posting to portals.

The error forms

The court also directed IEBC to provide the error forms signed by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati during tallying and verification at the National Tallying Centre between August 10 and 15.

“IEBC should provide certified copies of Forms 32A and 34A Book 2 used in the impugned election subject to the applicants providing to the IEBC specific contested polling stations for compliance,” the court ordered.

The agency was further ordered to provide the applicants with certified copies of penetration tests conducted on its election technology prior to and during the election.

Partnership agreements

IEBC was also told to provide access to “partnership agreements with its technical partners, list of users, trail and admin access”.

The court said the scrutiny should be conducted within 48 hours, from 2pm yesterday to 2pm on Thursday, September 1.

Each party will be represented by two agents during the scrutiny and they will be under the supervision of the registrar of the Supreme Court and her staff.

The court directed the registrar, Ms Letizia Wachira, to file her report by 5pm on Thursday and provide copies to all parties.

The court, however, declined Mr Odinga’s request on the provision of the soft copy of the voter register as well as scrutiny of the biometric voter register.

Also rejected by court was a request touching on access to all the Kiems kits and servers for all constituency tallying centres.

It also declined Mr Odinga’s plea for the terms of reference between Smartmatic International and local service providers.