Activist John Githongo has denied allegations that he falsified logs demonstrating how the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) server could have been easily hacked during the August 9 General Election, as stated in an earlier affidavit to the Supreme Court last week.
Mr. Githongo denied accusations made in the replying affidavits of President-Elect William Ruto done on his behalf by digital strategist Dennis Itumbi; Dr. Ruto’s presidential agent Davis Chirchir, Mr. Eric Mulei, Mr. Raymond Kiprotich, and Mr. Ashif Kassim, that accused him of presenting falsified logs to the Supreme Court in a further affidavit filed at the court on August 28.
“It is not true that the petitioner has falsified logs. The logs annexed to my affidavit dated August 21, 2022, are the exact logs that were given to me by the young man referred to in my affidavit therein and therefore the logs did not originate from myself or petitioner but from the aforesaid young man,” Mr. Githongo clarified.
He went on to explain that the logs shown to him by the young man were intended to be a demonstration of how the IEBC server can be accessed and manipulated by unauthorised third parties.
“The same are screen grabs, commonly known as screenshots and are not actual logs and the affidavit of Benson Wesonga date August 21, 2022, clearly indicates that the said logs are screenshots and not actual logs,” he said.
The activist claimed that IEBC Commissioner Justus Nyangaya’s affidavit corroborated the information given to him by the young man because the commissioner’s actual annexed logs were identical to those shown to him on camera by his source, and he was willing to share the same if called upon to.
“I have been actually furnished with the actual logs and forwarded them to our information technology expert, Benson Wesonga, who has studied the same and generated a brief analysis on the same,” Mr. Githongo said.
To dispel rumours that he had changed his mind about his earlier affidavit, the activist stated that he still stood by it and that the only difference was his clarification that the logs provided in the affidavit were screenshots to be used as a demonstration rather than actual logs.
“As per paragraphs 92, 93 and 94 of the petitions, the contents of my affidavit dated August 21, 2022, are further evidence of alteration of forms 34A which the ninth respondent (Dr. Ruto) has completely ignored and/or failed to respond to,” he said.
This clarification by Githongo comes a week after he shocked the country by filing his affidavit in which he describes a young man who claimed he was part of a 56-member team of hackers hired to manipulate the forms 34A submitted in the IEBC server via the Kiems kit in a way that favored Dr. Ruto.
The young man also claimed that the team was housed in Karen to complete the task and that the majority of those involved in the illegal work are currently outside of the country.
