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Kenya's election results nullified – inconsistency in tech systems

Kenya , 01 Sep 2017

Kenya's election results nullified – inconsistency in tech systems

The Supreme Court in Kenya has nullified the results of the presidential elections carried out on 8 August, and has ordered that fresh elections be held 60 days from today. According to the ruling, inconsistencies were identified within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) election management system.

During an earlier Supreme Court session, James Orengo, representing the petitioner, the National Super Alliance (NASA), said that logs from the IEBC system showed that it had been manipulated.

The NASA team complained of impediments by the IEBC in auditing the ICT system.

Orengo said that the Commission failed to provide the GPS location of the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) as required by the Court.

An ICT audit of the IEBC system, as ordered by the Supreme Court, showed that the systems did not have firewall certifications.

"What is contained in the database of the IEBC is a reflection of what took place during the elections; and not just on polling day but before and after the polling day," Orengo argued.

"The court-appointed expert say that the first respondent (IEBC) was supposed to provide the configuration of internal firewalls and did not affect the vulnerability of the system. The internal firewall configuration was not delivered as ordered by the court."

The IEBC delayed the scrutiny of their systems saying that their servers were hosted in Europe and that they could not comply immediately with the court order due to time difference.

In a rejoinder this afternoon, the Chairman of the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati said that the judgment of the Supreme Court faulted the transmission of results and that they will be making internal changes before the next polls.

He also invited the police to investigate any person within the Commission.

The entire ruling from the Supreme Court is expected within the next 21 days, which will detail the full effect of the technical failure.

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