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No please, IEBC tells Raila Odinga and Nasa

Friday August 11 2017
By Patrick Lang'at
By Samwel Owino

Kenya's electoral commission (IEBC) has dismissed National Super Alliance (Nasa) leaders’ demand that Raila Odinga be declared validly elected president, saying the results they presented could not be ascertained.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on Thursday night reminded the politicians and other players that the commission is independent and will not take directions from any quarter.

The Law

Mr Chebukati said the Constitution mandates only one body, the commission, to conduct elections and announce the results.

“We cannot therefore take results from candidates,’’ he said.

“Article 249 of the Constitution stipulates that the Commission is independent and not subject to the control of any person or authority.”

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According to Mr Chebukati, the figures presented by the opposition were not accompanied by forms 34A and 34B and, therefore, the commission could not verify them and use them as a basis to declare Mr Odinga as the winner.

In addition, Mr Chebukati ruled out announcing the final presidential results before receiving all the results from polling stations.

Forms 34A

“The accurate and lawful result will only be ascertained once all the Form 34Bs are received by the commission and the results therein collated,” Mr Chebukati said.

As at 9pm, 40,432 of the 40,883 forms 34A from polling stations had been uploaded to the public portal with 451 yet to report their details.

Some 170 of the 290 constituencies had sent in their Forms 34B.

The 451 polling stations yet to report their results and send the Forms 34A have a total of 450,000 votes.

IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba reiterated Mr Chebukati’s position, saying that the commission can only declare the final results after all the 290 constituencies have reported their tallies and Forms 34B sent.

290 AREAS

“We do not declare results based on the basis of forms (34Bs from the constituencies). We do that based on the number of votes cast and how they are distributed among candidates,” said Mr Chiloba.

He added: “We can make an assessment, however, when the remaining result will no longer make the difference to the numbers. But for now we must get all of them and ascertain that the winner has been found. ”

IEBC has the constitutional mandate to determine whether one has 50 per cent plus one votes and at least 25 per cent in at least 24 counties to be declared validly elected president.

Mr Chiloba reiterated the commission’s commitment that all the 290 constituencies will have reported their results by Friday noon, after which the commission will validate them and declare the official presidential election results.

On hacking, Mr Chiloba said that the commission had verified the hacking allegations and had concluded that the details were not that of the commission’s server, as they were “very different from ours.”

Hacking

“We have looked at the allegation on the alleged hacking, and our team has determined that the database that our systems runs on is different from the one alleged to have been hacked.

Nasa had alleged that the IEBC results transmission system had been hacked and changed to Mr Odinga’s disadvantage.

“We will remain focused on doing what is right and seek to inspire public confidence in the results transmission process,” said Mr Chiloba.

Commissioner Abdi Guliye said  there was no hacking that had happened to the IEBC system, although he had on Wednesday said that some people had attempted the hack but failed.

“There has been no hacking,” Prof Guliye said during the commission’s 9pm briefing.

“That story of hacking is not there. And that way, we have no reason to look for anyone.”

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