Smartmatic Refuse To Give Raila Full Access To IEBC Servers

Smartmatic International has declined the order to allow Raila Odinga’s team full access to their servers as ordered by the Supreme Court.

Smartmatic International is the company procured by IEBC to provide technology for the August 9th General Polls.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday, August 30 during a pre-trial conference, the Supreme Court ordered IEBC to grant the petitioners access to any server used to capture images of Forms 34C.

However, Smartmatic’s Managing Director F. Gunnick in a letter on Thursday, September 1, noted that providing full access to the servers would be an infringement on their property rights.

Moreover, Gunnick stated that allowing third party access to their information would also render it insecure for any future use. 

“Providing full access would infringe our intellectual property rights,” reads part of the statement from Smartmatic. 

“Providing third parties access to our source code, and security features including transmission certificates and encrypted keys would render the system insecure – as it is today – for any future use in Kenya or anywhere else in the world. In addition to violating our IP rights, this would also jeopardize elections in other countries that are using or have used our systems,” it further read. 

In addition, Gunnick recommended that the IEBC makes all “data related to the Results Transmission System and the Results Transmission System logs” available which he says should be enough to audit the results transmission and verify that it worked properly.

Furthermore, Smartmatic MD defended the accuracy of the results stressing that “all physical tally reports were available” to everyone including political parties and election observers who were able to tally the results independently.

Nonetheless, while presenting their submission on Wednesday, IEBC explained that the court remains apprehensive about granting the petitioners access to its servers for forensic imaging.

This is because of concerns that such an action may interfere with its future operations.

Also Read: Raila Denied Claim of Non-Compliance in Server Access

IEBC Lawyer Eric Gumbo also argued that should the Supreme Court nullify the results of the presidential polls and order a fresh election; the electoral commission will not be able to conduct the exercise since it will allegedly have lost full access to its servers.