Controversial details Raila's team found in Forms 34A and 34B
Over 50 per cent of forms analysed, the team said, had serious anomalies
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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.
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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.
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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.
Servers audit
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.
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“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.
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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.
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