IEBC explains why it can’t grant Azimio full access to its servers
IEBC has said it can’t grant Azimio coalition full access to its servers despite a Supreme Court order issued on Tuesday.
The development comes despite IEBC, in a tweet on Wednesday evening confirming that all parties have been allowed access to the servers and the scrutiny process is ongoing as ordered by the court.
But the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is still hesitant to allow the petitioners for the August 9, 2022, presidential election access to its servers for forensic imaging.
The commission through its lawyers said the access could interfere with its operations in the future.
On Wednesday, the IEBC requested that the court explain its first order, arguing that there was ambiguity over what it meant when it granted the petitioners access to the servers.
The request was made through counsel Eric Gumbo.
“We have had interactions with my colleagues who are handling the scrutiny and they give us the indication that there has been very good progress so far but there is one specific issue which they would like to have clarification from this court and that arises from the use of the word ‘forensic image’,” said Gumbo.
“The applicants appear to be interpreting that to mean an opportunity to get the image of the entire server…now that is causing a bit of a concern because then it means if they have an image of the server, technically, they would have gotten access to everything contained in that server.”
Should the Supreme Court nullify the results of the presidential polls and order a fresh election, Gumbo argued, then the IEBC will not be able to conduct the exercise since it will allegedly have lost full access to its servers.
“It then particularly concerns the commission because if by chance there was an order for a repeat election and you don’t have that infrastructure, it then means that that election may not be conducted,” he said.
“The other concern is the potential breaches that might be in relation to third-party licenses that are contained and so therefore it really is important that we get clarity on that question so that the exercise can proceed smoothly.”
This comes after the Supreme Court ordered the electoral body to, among other things, provide the petitioners access to any server used to collect images of Forms 34A.
However, lawyer Paul Mwangi, who is representing Raila Odinga in the petition on Thursday morning claimed that IEBC had yet to conform to the order granting them access to the servers.
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