Former IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati has insisted that the 2022 general elections are most credible and transparency Kenya has ever had.
According to him that was achieved because of the technology that was used.
“To date, there has been no evidence provided showing any discrepancy in the physical original Form 34As or their uploaded copies which were published on the Public Portal,” he said while addressing the 19th International Electoral Affairs Symposium and Awards ceremony in Portugal on November 14.
He added that the same was confirmed by the Supreme Court, while delivering its judgement on the outcome of the elections that had been contested by Azimio.
“The Supreme Court stated the following in its judgment: ‘The technology deployed by the IEBC for the conduct of the 2022 general elections met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security, and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results’,” the former IEBC boss said.
He however noted that technology can not prevent cases of impunity that are witnessed during elections while mentioning some that were witnessed in the country.
“Technology – even when leveraged at its best – cannot cure impunity in elections. With all these unimpeachable technological measures in place, violence was still meted on election officials during the 2022 General Election.
“A Returning Officer was murdered, staff members were kidnapped, service providers were harassed, and several were injured in the run-up to the results declaration event at the Bomas of Kenya,” Chebukati said.
Other actions of impunity he listed include the arrest, detention of Smartmatic employees, who were contracted to provide service for the electoral body.
“We now understand that the then regime who had a preferred presidential candidate wanted credentials to access the servers to compromise the upcoming election. Fortunately, these schemes were not fruitful due to the sufficient network security devices we had invested in to protect the system,” Chebukati said.
“For instance, fraudsters, more than six months after the results declaration event, downloaded Form 34Bs, swapped the results in favour of the losing candidate, and then published these falsified results in the press and on social media,” he further said.
He however noted that such acxtions are not only witnessed in Kenya but across the world, including US, “despite the US being one of the strongest democracies in the world.”
