Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua allege in court that the 2022 presidential election was rigged way before August 9 by 21 individuals—19 foreigners and two Kenyans—who had access to the electoral agency’s technology.
Mr Odinga and Ms Karua go on to say that the alleged manipulation began in March 2022 with foreign nationals breaking into and tampering with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) systems.
Mr Odinga and Ms Karua say that the meddling led in the manipulation and change of voter turnout and Kiems kit data on election day, and the subsequent announcement of William Ruto as President-elect. They did not name the persons allegedly engaged in the plan.
According to the petitioners, the 21 non-IEBC personnel falsified numbers and election results generated by the presiding officers in the field, jeopardizing the integrity of the election.
“There was an elaborate and fraudulent premeditated scheme to interfere with and undermine and defeat the integrity, credibility and security of the presidential election. The interference was intended to alter the true results of the presidential election,” they claim.
The two leaders also accused a breach of security of the IEBC’s election materials, systems, and devices in their case, which is presently before the Supreme Court.
Ms Karua’s 45-page document alleges that IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati is also guilty of 12 electoral offenses and ethical violations.
“Mr Chebukati was personally continuously deleting and uploading different result declaration forms—Form 34A, 34B and 34C—even after the declaration of the final ‘outcome’ on August 15, 2022, as shown by the use of his credentials in the logs of the IEBC portal,” Ms Karua alleges.
She adds that forms 34A were being intercepted and stored temporarily in an external address not belonging to the IEBC, so as “to allow the interceptor to manipulate the forms 34A before re-uploading and uploading different forms 34A”.
She further alleges that police investigators found an unattended laptop at the verification auditorium at the National Tallying Centre at Bomas of Kenya, allegedly belonging to a Mr Koech Geoffrey Kipngosos, an agent of the United Democratic Party.
According to Ms Karua, the laptop was connected to an external network “where forms 34A were being stored temporarily, downloaded and then re-uploaded to the IEBC portal through an application for sharing data (Sharepoint)”.
Court papers indicate the basis of the petitioners’ claim of interference with the election is a forensic communication analysis of electronic devices seized from three Venezuelans arrested on July 21 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The analysis was done by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
“Evidence obtained from the forensic communication analysis of the electronic devices that were in the possession of the said three foreigners on the eve of the General Election reveals serious and alarming facts that would later be manifest in the disputed electoral process, system and conduct of the elections,” court papers indicate.
“The historical analysis of one of the laptops indicated the user is able to directly log into the IEBC local IP address using remote desktop tools. The history demonstrates that the remote access to the IEBC IP address began in March 2022,” says Ms Karua.
Ms Karua adds that the analysis showed that a person named “Jose Grecoria Camarigo Catellanos was the super administrator of the IEBC Integrated Database Management System (IDMS) and has all rights to manage IEBC field staff using Kiems kit.”
The said person can also add, remove and delete data using the system and can assign [roles] to IEBC staff, Ms Karua claims.
Another claim is that a day after the election, 687 Kiems kits were still open.
