By Hon Musalia Mudavadi
1. We refer to your media statement through which you purportedly provided the notification for fresh presidential election pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling rendered on the September 1. In its determination, the Supreme Court declared that the Presidential Election held on August 8 was invalid, null and void.
2. Your interpretation that the election scheduled on October 17 shall be in the style of a run of contest of only two candidates is erroneous and unconstitutional. We also take reservation that you have not consulted the parties involved before making a determination on the date of the said election. It is our view that the date of the fresh election be a product of consultation with concerned parties and not unilateral decision imposed on the people of Kenya. We demand that you immediately seek consultation with the political parties and relevant stakeholders before a formal notification of the presidential election.
3. Given the special circumstances of the fresh elections, we believe that the IEBC should take measures to ensure that the fresh presidential election meet the standards contemplated under Articles 81, 86 and 138 of the Constitution and other relevant provisions of the law. The following considerations should inform your planning and implementation processes.
4. The IEBC has not purged the contempt it committed in regard to the orders of the Supreme Court. The IEBC is under obligation under Section 44 of the Elections Act to provide a system of technology that is transparent and verifiable. It is therefore inappropriate and foolhardy for the IEBC to embark on the planning of the fresh election without full compliance with the Orders of the Supreme Court in the redeployment of technology in the fresh presidential election. Wherefore demand a full audit of technology in use in full compliance with the law. Such an audit should include:
a. Full information relating to the ICT infrastructure, list of support partners and their respective Service Level Agreements (SLAS), full disclosure of implementation documentation by each partners,
b. Firewall configuration including ports configuration.
c. Disclose all database transaction logs including: alert logs, archive/redo logs, audit trail, data files, OS command history, network logs, sql.net logs database vault logs and trace files.
d. Physical view and inspection of IEBC servers, portal access to the cloud servers and IP addresses of all 20 servers.
e. Full access and copy of all servers and databases used by the IEBC;
f. Disclose all support partners with SLAs and escalation matrix;
g. Disclose firewall configuration including ports configuration;
h. Entire enterprise architecture of the landscape,
i. GPS coordinates of KIEMS.
j. Telkom and network structure with all service providers (provide agreements and implementation details).
k. Transaction logs of all databases and servers.
5. We therefore demand the audit of the technology in use and full accountability in relation with Saffran. We need your urgent information regarding steps taken to investigate the conduct of Saffran Identity and Security (Morpho) having established that there was no communication between KIEMS kits and the oracle server that was procured to process results transmitted from the polling stations. We demand that Saffran and Oracle provide full implementation information in relation to their involvement in the General Election held on 8th August 2017.
Review of the electoral infrastructure (register of voters and polling stations): On August 8, it emerged that there were discrepancies in the voter register owing to the failure to maintain one voters roll of all registered voters. Thus it is impossible to know all persons who turned up to vote on the elections held on August 8 without full disclosure on the complementary methods used and the identities of such voters.
It also emerged during the hearing of the petition that IEBC used polling stations which were not gazetted in accordance with the law and regulations. It is important to have full clarity in relation to the voters register and the polling stations.
Full transparency and in the planning and operations of the fresh election: During the preparation for the elections held on 8th August 2017, the biggest challenge was lack of transparency and accountability of the IEBC. We demand that the Commission undertake immediate steps to enhance its transparency and accountability mechanisms. In this regard we demand as follows
• Establish a technical monitoring committee with representatives of the main political parties, coalitions or candidates to oversee implementation of the technology in use.
• Appoint and gazette returning officers who are not among the ranks of the Constituency Election Coordinators in consultations with political parties and candidates.
• Agree on a framework for printing of ballot papers and result declaration forms including monitoring of the same. Al Ghuriar should not be considered for the printing of ballot papers and result declaration forms in the fresh elections.
• All Forms 34Bs should be preprinted indicating the names of polling stations in the constituency and names of candidates. Returning Officers to manually fill the Forms in the presence of agents after conducting an open tally after verifying the Forms 34A and the electronically transmitted results using the KEIMs system. Political parties should have full access to both electronic and jointly monitor the handover of physically delivered forms. There should be no use of Excel documents in tabulating elections results. Electronic management of results can only be done using the integrated system and must involve scanning of Form 34B.
• Elections results to be announced at the Constituency level. Results sent electronically must be accompanied by corresponding statutory result declaration forms. Officials at the constituency and national tallying center can only use the results contained in the result declaration forms as reference for tabulation of results. Political parties and candidates agents must have access to all transaction logs of all transmissions. Only scanned images to be sent through the KIEMS kits or results transmitted by Presiding Officers and Returning Officers may be tabulated. National tallying center should not display results before they are verified and announced at the constituency level. No results should be displayed unless political party and candidates agents are given full access to all transaction logs of all servers and databases.
• Candidates’ agents should be part of receiving teams at the constituency and national tallying centers. Receiving teams to verify all Forms 34As and 34Bs transmitted electronically or physically delivered and confirm that accurate entries are made on the Forms 34Bs and sign off before announcement is made at the constituency level.
• Establish a transparent and accountable framework for integration of technology: In order to secure compliance with the principles set out in the Constitution and the electoral law, the IEBC must take immediate steps to engender transparency and accountability in the electoral planning and infrastructure. Technology integration must be done transparently and must be amenable to a full audit by the IEBC and stakeholders. We demand a clear realistic plan to achieve transparency and accountability through the planning, implementation and audit phases. All partners engaged to provide electoral technology solutions must be known to the Kenyan people, their roles defined and accountability mechanisms set up.
• Establish defined roles of the security agencies and eliminate undue influence by the provincial administration and other public officials: The IEBC has adequate protection under the Constitution and the law. Kenyans have also made sufficient and appropriate investment in the Commission. The independence must be seen in practice. IEBC has nothing to fear from any person or authority. Clear plans for engagement of security officials must be established. Public officials engaged to work during elections must be known and their roles defined. The roles of security officials must be clearly defined and under the authority of the relevant election officials. There must be no role for the provincial administration and any security agencies that are not directly engaged by the Commission.
Read: No election on October 17 until IEBC meets NASA demands – Raila
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Independence of the IEBC is not negotiable. NASA coalition demands that fresh election should be administered by a professional and non-partisan officials. We demand that officials who are partisan or perceived as such should step aside and or be suspended during the planning and execution of the fresh election. These include:
1. Ezra Chiloba (CEO)
2. Betty Nyabuto – Deputy Commission Secretary (Operations):
3. James Muhati, Director ICT:
4. Immaculate Kassait:
5. Praxedes Tororey:
6. Moses Kipkogey:
In our view the recommendations herein are reasonable and bear the minimum steps necessary to facilitate a free fair and more accountable election process. We demand your assurance and initiative to undertake the steps specified herein.
Sincerely,
Hon. Musalia Mudavadi
National Super Alliance
Unedited
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