• Kioni said the evidence was only made available to them in recent days as the process of retrieving and analysing the data from IEBC servers took time.
• He further explained that a whistleblower only exposes the rot after it has already happened and not before things have gone wrong.
Image: FILE
Azimio has explained why it failed to include the whistleblower's alleged evidence in the Supreme Court petition as part of the proof that Raila Odinga won the August 9 polls.
Kioni said the evidence was only made available to them in recent days as the process of retrieving and analysing the data from IEBC servers took time.
He further explained that a whistleblower only exposes the rot after it has already happened and not before things have gone wrong.
"The time you are supposed to file the report in court and the time the judgment is supposed to be given by the Supreme Court the time is so short," Kioni said interview on Tuesday
The Revised Supreme Court Presidential Election Petition Rules 2017 require petitioners in a presidential election to file their case and evidence in court within seven days after the poll results are announced.
Respondents are within four days of service of the petition required to file and serve their response after which the Supreme Court is supposed to hear and deliver its verdict within 14 days from the day the petition was filed.
"The time is so short that there is no sensible whistleblower who can give you anything tangible. They know something wrong has happened, but to put something on the table that convinces people takes time," Kioni said.
On January 18, Kioni said evidence contained in the data made available by Vanguard Africa indicated that Raila won the August 9 polls with 8.1 million votes against President William Ruto’s 5.9 million votes.
"We have maintained that the results announced by Chebukati didn’t reflect the will of Kenyans. Most of the manipulation that was done happened in the Mt Kenya region,” the former Ndaragwa MP said.
"What has been verified so far shows that Raila won elections with 8,170,355 representing 57.53 per cent of the votes cast. Ruto got 5,915,973 votes representing 41.66 per cent of the votes cast," Kioni said in a press conference.
During the interview, Kioni said the process of retrieving data from the IEBC servers by the whistleblower was further prolonged following outgoing IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati's continued stay in the office prior to his retirement.
He claimed the former IEBC boss stayed put in office to allegedly cover all loopholes of a third party obtaining data from the servers.
"Chebukati was supposed to have gone home on the 17th of November on terminal leave. Even on the 17th of January, three months later, he was in office. We are told he was the earliest in office and the last to leave because they were fearing that something would come up," Kioni said.
He claimed the whistleblower nonetheless managed to retrieve the data over that period because he was "cleverer than them".
"It is now available for us to consume, it would not have been available to the Supreme Court from any other source other than IEBC," Kioni said.