Probe Nkaissery, Mucheru over rigging claim, Mudavadi party demands

What you need to know:

  • Amani National Congress (ANC) on Wednesday said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru should be investigated for allegedly spearheading a plot to steal the August elections in favour of Jubilee.
  • In a statement, ANC secretary-general Godfrey Osotsi said that there is a scheme by the President Uhuru Kenyatta-led Jubilee and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct “digital election rigging.”

Barely a day after ODM leader Raila Odinga sensationally claimed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was meddling in the voter registration exercise, a political party has dragged two senior cabinet secretaries into the saga.

Amani National Congress (ANC), led by Musalia Mudavadi, on Wednesday said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru should be investigated for allegedly spearheading a plot to steal the August elections in favour of Jubilee.

In a statement, ANC secretary-general Godfrey Osotsi said there is a scheme by the Jubilee Party and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct “digital election rigging.”

Already, President Uhuru Kenyatta has led Jubilee in condemning Mr Odinga and the Opposition for linking security agencies to alleged election fraud.

According to Mr Osotsi, there is an elaborate scheme between the IEBC secretariat and the Jubilee Party to steal elections.

'SMART CARD LINK'

“It involves brazen and heinous breaking of electoral laws and subversion of the Constitution. The exhibited boldness and confidence of the execution can only be because of connivance of high echelons in Jubilee government, the National Registration Bureau (NRB) and IEBC,” said Mr Osotsi.

He added: “ANC calls for investigation in the ministries that handle ICT and Registration of Persons and more so the role of Cabinet Secretaries Joe Mucheru and Joseph Nkaiserry, the Director of Immigration and Registration of Persons Major General (Rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa, the IEBC Secretariat especially the ICT department and the Registrar of Political Parties (RPP), Lucy Ndung’u.”

The Jubilee Party’s launch of their "smart card" and the timing of their countrywide membership registration, according to ANC, is designed to coincide with the ongoing voter registration for an ulterior manoeuver to connect "Jubilee election rigging experts" to the IEBC voters’ database and strategic technology infrastructure, National Registration Bureau (NRB) and Registrar of Political Parties (RPP) data through a software application interfaced using a short code 30553.

“The software allows Jubilee ICT gurus access to manipulate IEBC, NRB and RPP data bases. It's like the Kencall deal of 2013. The manipulation ensures that the votes cast during Jubilee nominations will remain in the IEBC system and that's what will be declared Jubilee winning votes plus some top ups to conceal the fraud. This is why Jubilee is upbeat it will get 60 per cent of the vote in August,” Mr Osotsi said.

POLITICAL FRAUD

“Our private investigations he said reveal that the multiple sharing of IDs is a consequence of the fraud,” he went on.

He argued that for the IEBC to have agreed to link their database to the Jubilee software, they must have given out their Application Programme Interface (API), “which is the main borne of contention here. Is it legal to allow such access? Should other parties and stakeholders develop similar software and will IEBC share the same API with them?”

“It is mischievous that when Jubilee has bragged of being digital, their focus has been strictly on using ICT for executing political fraud and economic crimes. No wonder Jubilee has been very keen on combing the whole country to recruit and retain at all costs top ICT experts to execute electoral fraud on Kenyans,” Mr Osotsi said.