KENYA ELECTIONS: NASA Demands Access into IEBC Servers

Kenya’s Opposition coalition, National Super Alliance (NASA) has said that the only way it will accept the election results is if they are granted access to the IEBC servers. Siyaya Senator, James Orengo told journalists on Friday that NASA had asked IEBC to allow them along with other candidates and the media access to the system for NASA to clear their doubts.

Orengo along with other representatives from the NASA leadership including Chief Agent Musalia Mudavadi spoke to the press after storming out of the national tally centre at the Bomas of Kenya. They had earlier held a meeting with the electoral body IEBC to present their concerns in regard to the authenticity of the preliminary results.

“We have given an offer to IEBC that in order to bring this to an end, we must be given access to their servers more particularly to audit the activity emerging from the transactions in their servers,” James Orengo said.

He added that; “If they open those servers and we all look at it, we’re prepared to accept the results that are in those servers. And this access shouldn’t only be given to NASA but to Jubilee and the media.”

Orengo claimed that in some polling stations, votes had been taken away from the NASA candidate Raila Odinga and added to his challenger, the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.

As part of the discussions with the IEBC, Orengo revealed that IEBC made guarantees to look into issues that were raised by the NASA technical committee.

“We want the country to be calm but that can only happen if the process is transparent. Justice shoud not only been done but also seen to be done,” Orengo said.

It should be recalled that on Thursday, NASA candidate Raila Odinga openly rejected the results provided by the electoral commission claiming that the IEBC servers had been hacked. Odinga said the system had been manipulated in favor of his opponent.

The latest demand from NASA raises more questions on their primary objective and how long Kenyans must wait as IEBC races to deliver the final announcement on who won the polls.

Some Kenyan lawyers have opined that NASA’s demand to access IEBC’s servers is not founded in law and that IEBC should take a firm stand to protect its independence.

Kenyatta’s Jubilee party has since not come out with the statement in response to NASA’s claims.

By 5pm on Friday, 288 constituencies had reported their results to the national tally centre and whereas IEBC was still waiting to get results from the remaining 2 constituents. Provisional results place Keyatta in a 54.2% comfortable lead while Odinga is in second place with 44.9%.

In an update at 2.30 pm, IEBC Executive Director Ezra Chiloba insisted that Kenyans observe patience in order to avoid a rushed process that could create inaccuracies.

He has, in the latest update, said IEBC will meet all chief campaign agents before IEBC Chairman makes an announcement at 7.30 pm, expected to be the long awaited announcement of presidential results