Kenya electoral commission fails to offer opposition server access News
Kenya electoral commission fails to offer opposition server access

[JURIST] Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission [official website] allegedly failed to follow a Supreme Court order on Tuesday requiring the electoral commission to grant the opposition computer access to verify controversial election results. According to Raila Odinga, head of the National Super Alliance (NASA) [party website], the recently re-elected President Uhuru Kenyatta falsely won 54 percent of the vote [NYT report] due to hacking of the commission’s servers. Following a challenge from the opposition, the Supreme Court ordered on Monday [JURIST report] that the commission must grant read-only sever access to both NASA and Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party. Odinga’s spokesman stated, however, that upon request only printed logs from the servers were offered. While the commission has excused the matter as a logistical error, due the request’s late time of day, it has been noted that the court order was made during the daytime. Currently, the Supreme Court is set to rule on the matter later Tuesday.

The election has sparked violent protests, resulting [JURIST report] in at least 24 people dead, according to NASA. UN HIgh Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called on Kenyan leaders [JURIST report] to “take the responsible path and exercise their leadership to avoid violence” after these deadly protests. Protests the following Kenya’s 2007 election, which Odinga also lost, resulted in more than 1,200 deaths, triggering an International Criminal Court investigation and charges that were ultimately dropped [JURIST report] against Kenyatta.