John Mark Githongo, a former journalist and corruption whistleblower, filed an affidavit at Supreme Court alleging that a team of 56 people were hired to infiltrate the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) systems during the election period.
In his petition, the Chief Executive Officer of the Inuka Kenya ni Sisi organization, has challenged the outcome of the presidential results, claiming that they were tainted by fraudulent activities in favor of the 9th respondent.
According to Githongo, the team was instructed to keep the total number of valid votes cast, so the only way to tamper with the figures was to subtract votes from one presidential candidate to the other.
“Their task was to receive the Forms 34A from the KIEMS Kits which were sent to their server/platform which he termed as Uchaguzi Tallying. After receiving the said data, they would edit the necessary form 34A’s according to the instructions given to them by their leaders and thereafter upload the said edited Form 34A’s to the IEBC portal.
“The team was indoctrinated on the phrase “freedom is coming “and that they needed to be freed from dynasties; in this case the Petitioner,” read the affidavit in part.
Githongo claims to have evidence from a whistleblower that the results were fraudulently exaggerated, suppressed, and substituted.
He explained that on August 18, he was introduced to a young man in Nairobi who said he had “a matter of national importance he wished to discuss.”
According to Githongo, the young man who was “visibly tense and terrified” revealed the truth about how the 9th respondent won the polls and explained how it was done.
“He revealed to me utterly shocking details of how he together with others, were involved in a large scale, well-orchestrated fraudulent scheme that enabled them to interfere with and compromise with their IEBC electoral data transmission system,” read part of the petition.
Githongo noted that the man claimed to be a member of “The Team,” a group of 56 people assembled to ensure a fraudulent victory “by any means possible.”
Ten people (including the young man) served as supervisors, while the remaining 46 were given access to the manipulating entries. They were tasked with obtaining form 34As from KIEMS Kits, editing them, and uploading them to the IEBC portal.
Dennis Itumbi, Morris Mutegi, Davis Chirchir, Jackson Kandi, Baby Serge, and Kibyegon were the other supervisors according to the court papers.
Githongo added that the team’s ICT experts had access to IEBC’s back-end servers, which were working in tandem with Smartmatic, the company that won the tender to provide technology for the polls.
To bolster his case, he claims to have a video of the testimony but will not reveal it until he appears in court.
He also stated that, for the sake of the young man’s safety, he will conceal his face and distort his voice.
Inuka Kenya is a non-governmental organization that promotes good governance in Kenya. They were among the observers at the recently concluded polls.
