Raila wants servers opened as his 14-day ultimatum on government draws near

WKT POLITICS

WKT Reporter 10 months ago 2 min read

Share this article

Raila Odinga insists that his victory was robbed and awarded to William Ruto.

By Dennis Avokoywa

Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga has refuted claims made by members of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance that the IEBC servers were open before and after the August 2022 general election.

Odinga alleges that, as a party, they were denied access to the servers, linking this denial to election malpractices that occurred on the servers.

“Mr. Ruto, you need to know, and I am telling you here without fear of contradiction, that the servers were not and are not open,” he said.

Speaking at the Azimio la Umoja rally in Kakamega, Odinga questioned why the Supreme Court denied their request to access the servers and allow their IT experts to verify the data despite IEBC assurances that the elections were free and fair.

“Instead, we got a letter from a company called Smatmatic, the IEBC service provider, saying we cannot access their servers as it will be a breach of their privacy and we would interfere with the results of elections in other jurisdictions,” added Odinga.

The former Prime Minister claims he defeated Ruto by more than 2.1 million votes, contrary to what the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced.

“Mr. Ruto we are challenging you to let the server be opened and audited by an independent institution, I can assure you that you lost the election by over 2.1 million votes, kama unajuwa ulishinda mbona unaogopa (if you are sure you won, why are you afraid?),” asked Odinga.

On his part, Ruto maintained that the servers were open before, during, and after the vote-counting exercise.

“They were open during the voting, posting and tallying of the results, they were also open when the matter went to court and it determined elections, to now pretend and tell us about the servers is an insult to our collective intelligence,” said Ruto.

Members of the Azimio la Umoja coalition, on the other hand, have stated that they will continue to hold rallies across the 47 counties to protest Ruto’s victory.

They also gave his government a 14-day ultimatum to reduce the price of goods. If they fail to do this, they will set up a demonstration to protest the high cost of living.