Win For Orengo As IEBC Gives Raila Servers

UPDATE 5.52 pm: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has allowed the unconditional access of all servers by parties following an order by the Supreme Court.

"Following the Supreme Court order, the IEBC has granted access to the parties to access the servers and the scrutiny exercise is ongoing," IEBC wrote.

A standoff ensued at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headquarters in Nairobi on Wednesday, August 31 after Senior Counsel, James Orengo, claimed that the commission has not given Azimio La Umoja agents access to its servers.

Speaking at the Supreme Court, Orengo alleged that the officials at the commission's base of operations at Anniversary Tower in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) denied them entry into the premises.

The conditions to enter were that the agents had to seek authorisation, despite the Supreme Court making orders the day before.

Chief Justice Martha Koome and her deputy, Philomena Mwilu, at the Supreme Court of Kenya on August 31, 2022. /ZAKHEEM RAJAN

"My lady Chief Justice and members of the court, we are also having difficulties with the orders relating to the inspection of the servers. We have been given restricted access only to the results transmission system. It is established that IEBC has eight servers yet we have access to one only.

"We have written to the registrar of the court in the hope that this court solves this matter as quickly as possible," Orengo claimed.

Justice Isaac Lenaola however answered him by disclosing that the exercise was ongoing by the lunch break as called by the apex court and that an issue on the matter would be availed to them in due course.

"We are following up on the question but as far as we know, the exercise is continuing and should there be an issue later in the day or tomorrow morning, we shall receive a report.

"By the time we got out of here, the exercise had commenced and there was an agreement on how to access the servers that were given and the issue of cloning is being addressed. Let's leave it for now. We are aware of that," Justice Lenaola stated.

Orengo had called upon the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome to intervene after they had written to the Judiciary registrar Anne Amadi over the matter.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 30 ordered the IEBC to grant the Azimio team supervised access to the servers that were used to capture images of the Form 34C at the commission's National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya.

"That IEBC be compelled to give the applicants supervised access to any server(s) at the National Tallying Centre for storing and transmitting voting information and which are forensically imaged to capture a copy of the Form 34C which is the total votes cast," read court documents.

The court also ordered IEBC to provide copies of its technology system security policy, which included its password policy, password matrix, and system administration password owners.

It was also ordered to provide the sign-offs/ verification of ballot paper printing and distribution, the terms of reference of all support contracts between Smartmatic International and Local Service Providers, the list of third-party integration including APIs and associated security controls, and the list of data repositories for both the physical and digital copies of election materials.

Counsel representing different parties share a light moment at the Supreme Court of Kenya on August 31, 2022. /ZAKHEEM RAJAN