The electoral agency has asked Parliament to change the law and allow authorised persons in the August 9 general election to access poll servers.
The commission wants Parliament to ratify an instrument providing for the procedure to be followed by parties with requests to access information in the servers.
IEBC says it is committed to “ensure the promotion of routine and systematic information disclosure pursuant to Access to Information Act and IEBC Act".
Upon request, the commission may provide details of voter identification logs in the Kiems kit as well as records of the electronic unique reference number of result forms per polling station.
The forms showing the date and time of transmission of results would be provided in a read-only format as per the Elections (Technology) Regulations, 2022 under consideration by MPs.
“Where applicable, the commission may grant read-only access to information and persons authorised will be required to fill a form,” the regulations read.
After the 2017 election, ODM leader Raila Odinga rejected the results. ODM and others demanded access to the 'back door' of the server in Europe so they could verify votes. They were turned down by the IEBC despite a court order.
This time, on request, an applicant would be assigned a user account by the IEBC, which they would only use for the specified purpose.
“Every account holder takes responsibility for the data captured through the account. IEBC does not accept responsibility for unauthorised use of the user account,” the rules read.
“Every account holder shall be bound by the Electoral Code of Conduct stipulated in the second schedule of the Elections Act, 2011.”
The regulations also ask MPs to do away with the elections technology advisory committee that the courts declared unconstitutional.
The committee comprised three members of the IEBC and designated staff, the Registrar of Political Parties, as well as representatives of the majority and minority parties in Parliament.
The Political Parties Liaison Committee and Information Communication Technology professional bodies also have a slot in the committee the IEBC wants eradicated.
The provision that IEBC may engage services of experts and consultants in respect of any functions of the elections technology committee has also been proposed for deletion in the new regulations.
The team’s role was to advise the IEBC on the adoption and implementation of election technology including the development of policies, deployment of poll technology and development of an operations continuity plan.
“The committee was declared unconstitutional. The regulations need to provide for the usage of the election technology,” IEBC said.
In granting access to information, the IEBC would also provide details of serial numbers of the electoral technology devices deployed in the polling station and serial numbers of the SIM cards deployed in the election.
The commission would also disclose the serial numbers of servers used in the election, IEBC ICT policy on Election Technology Management as well as business continuity and disaster recovery plan or penetration test certificate.
The information can be requested by a registered voter, authorised party officials, person authorised by independent candidates, candidates, referendum committee or any other person the commission may authorise.
The Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission said the amendment would help cure the challenges with the present law which only allows access to source codes.
The challenge of accessing IEBC servers came to the fore during the proceedings of the 2017 presidential election petition by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
During the hearing of the matter at the Supreme Court, the IEBC declined to open its servers despite a court order compelling it to do so.
The IEBC servers — supplied by French firm OT-Morpho in the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) tender— were by then hosted in France.
Inaccessibility of the servers was among the grounds the Supreme Court cited in the decision to nullify the 2017 presidential election.
Even so, the IEBC says the information would be provided in line with the law guiding access to information, as well as the IEBC Act, 2011.
The law says the Commission may decline to give information to an applicant where the request is unreasonable, data still under deliberation and unsatisfactory confidentiality requirements.
During the launch of the IEBC Strategic Plan, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said the commission would instal several servers for the elections, and the same would be made accessible.
“We will have multiple servers. If possible, there will be a server for the media, political parties, the candidates and the public. The issue of having one server will not be there in 2022," Chebukati said.
Two months ago, the High Court struck out an application by an activist who wanted Chebukati jailed for refusing to open servers of the 2017 general election.
In the case, Khelif Khalifa moved to court seeking to have Chebukati held in contempt for denying ODM leader Raila Odinga and Kenyans access to the servers.
(Edited by V. Graham)
“WATCH: The latest videos from the Star”
