Cord’s ‘explosive’ poll dossier to be released

Debate on the credibility of the March 2013 General Election is set to be re ignited when the Cord Coalition releases an independent audit that some insiders describe as “explosive”. 

The Sunday Nation has established that the confidential audit was carried out in South Africa and the United States where experts took months to pore over hundreds of documents and electronic records that the opposition coalition shipped to them for forensic examination.

A senior member of Cord confirmed that the results of the audit would be important to reveal the truth about how the contentious March 4 elections were conducted, one year after Jubilee alliance presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta defeated former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The contracting of the South African company is said to have been a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of top Cord leaders and a few aides.

“The report will be released in the next couple of weeks. It is not just an audit done from South Africa but an amalgamation of several audits,” a close ally of the Cord presidential candidate in the 2013 elections, who cannot be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said. 

Since the elections, Cord has accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of working with state agents to rig out Mr Odinga in favour of Mr Kenyatta.

In January the media reported that the former PM blamed the military for rigging the elections. But he later told the Sunday Nation that his speech in Kisumu, which he delivered in Dholuo, had been misinterpreted. Jubilee has consistently maintained it won the election fairly. 

According to the presidential election results announced by IEBC, Mr Kenyatta garnered 6,173,433 or 50.51 per cent of the votes which was enough to avoid a re-run.

On the other hand, Mr Odinga, who came second in the IEBC tally, garnered 43.7 per cent or 5,340,546 votes in the presidential elections. Cord unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the Jubilee victory.

Another petition seeking to overturn Mr Kenyatta’s victory was filed by rights activists Gladwell Otieno and Zahid Rajad on the basis that the election process was irredeemably flawed. It was also dismissed. 

Since last year’s elections, the opposition coalition has called for the disbanding of the IEBC before the next election. The electoral body has acknowledged the failure of some electronic equipment during voting and tallying but defended the integrity of the overall process and its outcome.   

The contracting of the audit has remained a closely guarded secret only known to the three Cord co-principals — Mr Odinga, former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka and Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula — and a handful of trusted aides and lawyers who represented them in the Supreme Court petition for fear of state operatives scuttling it.

Mr Odinga was represented in the Supreme Court petition by lawyers Mr George Oraro and Ochieng’ Oduol, among others. 

50 per cent plus

Mr Wetang’ula, who is also the Bungoma senator, Saturday repeated allegations that President Kenyatta did not attain the constitutional threshold to avoid a run-off.

“As you know, the President did not get the 50 per cent plus one vote as the IEBC claimed. A number of things happened that will soon be revealed,” said Mr Wetang’ula. But he declined to confirm or deny that a comprehensive and independent audit had been done in South Africa. 

Material for the audit was surreptitiously shipped from Kenya to South Africa by close associates of Mr Odinga and lawyers.

The Sunday Nation understands that after the documents and electronic evidence were physically flown to South Africa in batches, the foreign investigators visited Kenya to corroborate the information. The experts also got access to publicly released IEBC documents.  

According to our sources, the information in the dossier includes a recording of a senior IEBC official confessing that the commission had lost control of election data even before voting started as well as the vote counting.

Among the documents taken to South Africa was the 900-page affidavit Mr Odinga’s lawyers attempted to include as part of its evidence but which the Supreme Court threw out after ruling it was filed outside the constitutional time lines.

The document covered a wide range of issues, including allegations that a private company hosted Mr Kenyatta’s TNA and IEBC on the same server without alerting other competitors in the elections thus compromising the entire process. The affidavit also pointed out supposed inconsistencies in IEBC results.  

A source familiar with the audit report said “Kenyans will be shocked” by allegations of how state machinery was used to rig the elections.

“It is earth-shaking and will make some commissioners of IEBC to own up and resign,” the source said.

However, he said the audit is important to provide direction to the coalition on strategies for future elections.

Odinga’s Facebook page

Talk of the impending release of the audit report was further enhanced on Wednesday when curious posts appeared on Mr Odinga’s Facebook page.  The posts which have since been taken down stated “A storm is coming soon” followed by another one: “I will give more details very soon”.

Some of Mr Odinga’s handlers have, however, said the two social media updates may have been a result of a controversy on the administration of the Facebook account that has more than 90,000 followers.  

But the aides who are aware of the audit said the report may be released while Mr Odinga is out of the country. The former PM left on March 10 for a one-month visit coordinated by the African Presidential Centre at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. He is expected back in mid-April.

The timing of the report’s release is critical as an internal IEBC audit is expected soon. 
Even as the commission exudes confidence that the by-elections it has conducted since the March 2013 elections have redeemed its image and boosted the public’s confidence, it has not provided any definite answers on the release of the audit report.

IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan told Sunday Nation in an earlier interview that the audit should be ready by next month when the commission will share its report with political parties.

But speaking in a separate interview around the same time as the chairman, commission vice chairman Ms Lillian Mahiri-Zaja said the internal audit report of their own systems that started last year in November would be ready mid this year.

“We are looking at mid this year to have made significant steps in the internal audit,” she said, adding that an external audit was also running parallel to the internal audit to reveal the mistakes and weakness of the commission.