After a gruesome encounter with thousands of Forms 34A and
34B, expert reports tabled before the court show at least 121 forms out of 291
scrutinised contained varying and mischievous anomalies.
A report presented to the seven judge bench by the Registrar
of the Supreme Court Esther Nyaiyaki, 291 forms 34B — representing the 290
constituencies and the diaspora — were scrutinised by NASA experts.
The team exposed that 56 forms did not have watermarks, a
security feature that was part of the contract between the IEBC and Dubai
printer Al Ghurair. However, the law doesn’t specify any security features to
be marked on ballot papers.
In addition, 31 other forms had no serial numbers, while
five forms were not signed by returning officers.
In his submission shortly after the audit, Raila’s lawyer
James Orengo termed the Judiciary report “the smoking gun” and argued that
nearly five million votes were at stake in constituencies with “irregular”
forms.
“Our case has been proved that forgery, alternation of
documents fakery and deception have been used in various ways, including one in
which the server was used,” Orengo told the court on Tuesday.
Even as the Supreme Court judges retreat to analyse the over
70,000 pages evidence, both IEBC and Uhuru Kenyatta lawyers had rubbished the
anomaly claims.
The judiciary audit indicates, however, that of the 291
forms, 236 forms bore watermarks, while another 261 had serial numbers.
At least 281 were signed by returning officers, 225 were
signed and stamped by the ROs and two were only stamped. Some 260 forms were
signed by agents, and 32 not signed, according to the report.
Besides the audit of forms, there was a separate audit by
the court on the ICT system, including the IEBC computer servers.
The report prepared by Professors Elijah Omwenga, Joseph
Sevilla and Janet Kadenyi observed that IEBC allowed only partial read-only
access to its servers, with no copy capability or access to database logs.
The report also indicates IEBC only provided logs in trail
into the KIEMS database management system in a hard disk. This was rejected by
the NASA team, insisting on accessing the logs directly from the server.
“The first respondent (IEBC) should demonstrate the logs
came from the IEBC server by allowing all parties to have read-only access and
copy logs: alternatively, the first respondent could access the information in
the presence of the petitioner as and when requested,” the experts said.
They added, “...live access was provided on 29 August
at about 5.30 pm without the ability to access the database and/or data logs.
This request was not granted.”
It was also noted the IEBC indicated they had technical
challenges in complying with the server read-only access order, including
setting up of the VPN tunnel to the server, connectivity challenges when
accessing the cloud and security protection measures that need to be upheld as
the election period is not over.
Raila has previously claimed the system was hacked.
The former Prime Minister initially claimed results captured
in IEBC data showed he was leading by 8.04 million votes against Uhuru’s 7.7
million.
This meant they had to check presence of watermarks using
the UV reader, color of the form, serialisation, micro text, format of forms,
anti-copy features and column for comments on the form.
Kenyatta’s agents did not oppose the proposal but requested
they be allowed to look at the exact forms checked by NASA and make their own
comments.
The President’s team noted the form was a copy of the
original duly certified by an advocate. They further noted the form contained
declaration of results signed by IEBC chief Wafula Chebukati and other agents,
except for ODM where there is a comment that the agent declined to sign.
The parties also carried out scrutiny of forms 34As in Chuka,
Nyaribari Masaba, Mandera West, Mandera South, Kanyi, Bumula, Kabuchai, Sirisa,
Mt Elgon, Bonchari, South Mugirango, Bomachoge Borabu, Bobasi, Bomachoge
Chache, Nyaribari Nyasaba, Nyaribari Chache, Kitutu Chache North, Kitutu Chache
South, Lafey, Banissa, Mandera North, Mandera South, Mandera East, Embakasi
central, Makadara, Embakasi West, Roysambu, Embakasi East, Embakasi North and
Maara.
