Smartmatic writes to IEBC declining to open servers as directed by the Supreme Court

Smartmatic writes to IEBC declining to give full access of servers to Raila Odinga as directed by the Supreme Court.

Smartmatic International has denied Raila Odinga access to servers saying scrutiny infringes their intellectual property rights.

The corporation, through its managing director F. Gunnick, stated in a letter to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that the commission’s request could not be honored because it was covered by intellectual property.

The company explained that such images contain software that is owned and copyrighted by Smartmatic and is therefore IP protected.

IEBC requested the provision of an image of the NTC Server(s) in the letter inaccordance with the Supreme Court order, but the company declined.

“Providing full access would infringe our intellectual property rights,” the letter read in part.

“Providing third parties access to our source code, and security features including transmission certificates and encrypted keys would render the system insecure – as it is today – for any future use in Kenya or anywhere else in the world. In addition to violating our IP rights, this would also jeopardize elections in other countries that are using or have used our systems.”

Smartmatic company wants IEBC to instead provide the concerned party with all collected data related to the Results and Transmission System and all Results Transmission System logs as the information would be sufficient to extensively audit the Results Transmission System and verify that it worked properly.

According to Smartmatic, all physical tally reports were available online in real-time since election night.

“All political parties and certified NGO election observers had access to those tallies and were able to audit the results independently. Even citizens all over the world had full access to these tally reports and were able to add the results,” it said.

On Wednesday, IEBC had agreed to grant Azimio leader Raila Odinga access to its servers after his lawyer James Orengo alleged that they had blocked despite a court order.