Smartmatic Explains Why It Cannot Give Raila IEBC Servers

Smartmatic International Holdings has refused a Supreme Court order to provide parties unconditional access to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) servers.

In a letter dated Wednesday, August 31 signed by Managing Director, Frans Gunnick, the company revealed that the request to grant the parties access to an Image of NTC servers that hosts the Form 34C of the presidential election held on Tuesday, August 9, 2022, is impossible.

The letter which was addressed to IEBC CEO, Hussein Marjan, added that such an image contains sensitive information such that sharing with the public would warrant a copyright infringement.

"As per your request regarding the provision of Image of NTC servers, we would like to clarify that such image contains software owned and copyrighted by Smartmatic and is thus IP protected. Providing full access would infringe our intellectual property rights," the company stated. 

IEBC registration clerks at Madaraka primary school using the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kit. /STANDARD DIGITAL

"Providing parties access to our source code abs security features including transmission certificates and encryption keys would render the system insecure as it is today, for any future use in Kenya or anywhere else in the world. In addition to violating our IP rights, this would also jeopardize elections in other countries that are using or have used our system."

The company added that it recommended that IEBC make available all collected data related to the Results Transmission System (RTS) and all RTS logs.

Smartmatic added that the information should be sufficient to extensively audit the RTS and verify that it worked properly.

"Also, all physical tally reports were available online in real-time since election night. All political parties and certified NGO election observers had access to those tallies and were able to audit the results independently.

"Even citizens all over the world had full access to these tally reports and were able to add the results," added the company.

Gunnick further noted that the IEBC could provide supervised and managed access to the RTS from the Anniversary Towers in Nairobi, adding that the additional evidence will demonstrate the accuracy of the results.

Earlier on, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea by Raila Odinga's legal team to issue an order to the IEBC to grant full access to its servers, noting that the process of compliance was almost done.

Senior Counsel Philip Murgor on Thursday, September 1 raised concerns that the IEBC gave access to only one server. Justice Isaac Lenaola responded by saying that it would only allow Raila's legal team and the IEBC to submit their claims once it receives a report from a technical team dispatched by the court to oversee the supervised access to servers

"We received a full report from the technical team that was at IEBC and we were informed that the process of compliance was completed last night. As far as our team is concerned the process has been finished

"Should there be any issues or any concerns that the parties have, let those issues be addressed once we receive those reports this morning. You can address the question of noncompliance, servers you think were not accessed, the question on the information you received from your agents who were present and you the IEBC can respond to the complaints by the petitioners' counsel.

"The court will accurately determine what is the input of what you are saying. As far as we are concerned, that matter is spent, please address us tomorrow substantively once we receive the report," Lenaola stated.