Nairobi — Former Attorney General Amos Wako has opined that the 2022 poll server audit should not be used to challenge the verdict of the 2022 presidential petition but rather facilitate in assessing electoral system weaknesses.
The Former Attorney General stated that the Supreme Court has constitutional jurisdiction to determine electoral outcome disputes hence the server audit cannot subvert the decision of the apex court.
“The audit cannot reverse the decision of the Supreme Court; it’s a constitutional and legal process. The audit is like a post mortem which cannot revise the dead body but can tell you the cause of the dead body,” Wako told the National Dialogue Committee.
In his submission before the 10-member team co-chaired by Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa, Wako termed the election server audit as an aftermath process aimed at curing the shortcomings in the polls.
“We want to identify the weaknesses, loopholes, and shortfalls in the polls which can be rectified before the next election. This is the only way we can improve the electoral process and instill confidence of the people in it,” the Former Attorney General said.
The Former Busia Senator pointed out that proper mechanisms in the law must be instituted to ensure mandatory election audits after every election cycle.
Wako explained that the voter’s confidence in the electoral agency is wilted in the process of tallying and declaration of the election outcome further causing voter apathy among the electorate.
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“The more debate on the opening of the election servers, the more suspicion are raised. That where there is no smoke there must be some fire,” he said.
“If the doubts are not cleared,it could erode the confidence in future elections and reduce the figure of people participating in such elections,”Wako added.
According to Azimio leader Raila Odinga, access to IEBC servers is the only way to verify the presidential election results of 2022.
On the other hand, the Kenya Kwanza alliance insists that they have no access to the servers and therefore they are not in a position to open them.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has argued there is no constitutional provision to audit the servers of the 2022 general election as has been rooted for by opposition leaders.
In the results or election server, there are two sets of data: The voters’ data that include who voted, where they voted, what time they voted, and which method was used to identify them as a voter, and actual log data which indicate time stamps and includes specific details one would attribute to a particular action.
IEBC failed to submit a forensically recorded image of the server storing form 34C. The commission raised security concerns about their server data and hosted applications, which would expose their complete virtual server infrastructure.
IEBC also failed to reveal the owners of system administration password(s), citing the exposure of system administrators’ names and identities as a major security threat to administrators.
