Kenya court: Elections were neither transparent nor verifiable’

– ‘Mysterious puzzle’ –

Mwilu said that while voting day had gone off smoothly on August 8, the “system thereafter went opaquely awry”.

The IEBC was heavily criticised for failing to prove it had received tally sheets, known as forms 34A, from all 42,000 polling stations before declaring the final result on August 11, awarding Kenyatta victory with 54 percent of the vote.

Mwilu described the obscurity around the forms 34A as a “mysterious puzzle of labyrinthine proportions”.

Thousands of the forms were not made available, as legally required, by the time results were announced. A court study of a random sample of those that were provided showed many lacked security features, stamps and signatures.

The IEBC blamed network failures for missing and delayed tally forms, but the judges dismissed this excuse saying they should have been prepared, and that it should have taken only a few hours to get to a spot with enough connection to scan through the forms.

The way the result is transmitted “is as important as the result of the election itself”, said Mwilu.

“Failure of the electronic system was a direct violation of the law.”

– ‘Neither transparent nor verifiable’ –

Maraga slammed “inexplicable irregularities that go to the very heart of electoral integrity”.

Both judges questioned how an election costing taxpayers 43 billion shillings (347 million euros, $416 million) could result in problems with transmission and “disturbing” questions over the security of forms — which were all meant to be printed by the same company.

“We find that the 2017 presidential election was neither transparent nor verifiable,” leading to the unprecedented decision to nullify the vote, said Mwilu.

Maraga ordered the IEBC to “put in place a complementary system” to be used in the event that technology fails in the new election due on October 17.

Wednesday’s detailed ruling, plus opposition demands for an overhaul of the commission and warnings from the French firm that provided digital voting kits that it will not be ready on time, have raised fears it will be impossible to meet the poll deadline.

Kenya’s constitution says a new election must be held within 60 days of the court’s annulment.