Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 5 – Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya has written to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) requesting for log in credentials that will enable its agents access electronic results transmitted to the National Tallying Centre at Bomas of Kenya.
The request is contained in a letter signed by the the coalition’s Presidential Campaign Chief Legal Advisor Paul Mwangi.
The letter which is dated August 1 is addressed to IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati and Mwangi is seeking credentials to the Application Programming Interface for access to results that will be relayed during Tuesday’s General Elections.
“Kindly give us access credentials to the Application Programming Interface (API) to enable the Coalition Party access electronic results that will be transmitted on 9th August 2022,” Mwangi said in the letter.
Despite concerns from different political quarters over election rigging, the electoral agency has come out to assure Kenyans that Tuesday’s exercise will be free, fair and credible noting that it has put in place adequate measures to ensure transparency.
On July 19, during the second simulation of transmission of results, the electoral commission announced it had geofenced KIEMS kits to location-specific parameters with the devices said to be programmed to reject “false results forms” without the requisite identify features for corresponding polling centres.
IEBC said each polling station had unique statutory forms whose identifying features do not match forms deployed elsewhere.
Speaking during the simulation exercise, Justus Nyang’aya, IEBC Commissioner in Charge of ICT, said that the devices onboarded on the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) will reject ‘foreign’ files to avert system manipulation to alter results.
He added that the form 34 A is serialized, and it captures the identity of a particular station.
“If you try to send another form through that same KIEMS kit it won’t accept,” he said.
Nyang’aya explained the form also has a QR Code which will identify all files sent through the KIEMS system.
He noted that Forms 34 A have additional security features.
He added that in a bid to confirm the authenticity of the form, the National Returning Officer will use a UV light to confirm that the Form presented is original and also use a magnifying glass to check on other additional security features.
“We cannot take chances. We have taken those steps to ensure that the credibility of the votes is assured and protected,” he said.
Nyang’aya said that based on the security features in place, the forms cannot be altered adding that in the event it the same happens the Commission will know and will reject affected forms.
While commenting on the validation of Forms 34 A, Nyang’aya said that the results will be written by hand and agents asked to verify.
Nyang’aya said that once all the parties are in the agreement the agents will be invited to sign and agree that the results are correct before a presiding officer takes a picture of the form for onward transmission.
He further said that once the process is complete, they will allow the political parties and observers to take the photos of the original form with their phones if they need to.
