Our data is intact, IEBC tells Kenyans

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NMG 

By SAMWEL OWINO

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Summary

• IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said no passwords to the IEBC’s system had been compromised with the killing of Chris Msando.
• He added that those who tortured Mr Msando before murdering him could “not have obtained that information if that is what they were looking for.”
• IEBC, Mr Chebukati said, is working with service providers and no IEBC staff has passwords at the moment.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday moved to reassure Kenyan voters that the agency’s systems and servers were secure despite the weekend killing of his ICT manager, Chris Msando.

Mr Chebukati said no passwords to the IEBC’s system had been compromised with the killing and that those who tortured Mr Msando before murdering him could “not have obtained that information if that is what they were looking for.”

“We are working with service providers and no IEBC staff has passwords, they will be delivered at the right time,” he said.

Three technology giants IBM, Oracle and Dell have been drafted to ensure digital security of election data.

“They are using each other’s strengths to mount threats on our systems and ensure all possible attack loopholes are blocked,” the IEBC said in an earlier interview.

Mr Chebukati told members of civil society at his Anniversary Towers offices that the agency will Wednesday conduct simulations of the results transmission technology in 47 counties it suspended on Monday as news of Mr Msando’s killing broke.

“Chris was a team player, the team he left behind will do the work, we don’t need experts from anywhere else to continue with the exercise,” he said.

The testing of IEBC’s election results transmission software is meant to ensure smooth relay of results from all the 40,883 polling stations.

The breakdown of some of the gadgets in the 2013 poll was at the heart of Raila Odinga’s Supreme Court petition challenging the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as president.

The Supreme Court upheld Mr Kenyatta’s victory.

In 2013, more than half of the electronic voter identification kits (Evids), or poll books, failed, forcing the IEBC to use the manual system while real-time electronic transmission of results from the field using mobile phones crashed.

Mr Chebukati said the commission was talking to Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet on how to secure its staff.

He said the agency had appointed a lawyer to ensure no stone is left unturned in ongoing investigations into Mr Msando’s death.

Civil society members, led by John Githongo and George Kegoro, called for speedy investigations into the killing and urged Kenyans not to be intimidated but turn out in large numbers to vote on August 8.