Why Raila Odinga Wants Cambridge Analytica Servers Opened

National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga has called for investigations to be carried out in Kenya into the activities of data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, and believes their servers could contain evidence of a compromised Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

In the wake of a global scandal involving the company which worked on President Uhuru Kenyatta's 2013 and 2017 presidential campaigns, Odinga stated that the revelations had confirmed their previous allegations of election results manipulation.

He asserted that Cambridge Analytica's servers, which the United Kingdom (UK) government has ordered to be opened, could prove NASA's claims that algorithms were used by the IEBC to skew the results in favor of President Kenyatta.

He further highlighted the apocalyptic ads that ran during the campaign period depicting him as an anarchist which, it later emerged, Cambridge Analytica was behind.

"What is coming out in the open are the things we’ve brought out in the past. We were dismissed and accused of making them up.

[caption caption="Raila Odinga with Uhuru Kenyatta at Harambee House"][/caption]

"In 2013, we went to the Supreme Court with evidence of massive manipulation of election results, but our affidavits were thrown out on a technicality, being out of time, and expunged from the records. In 2017, we brought up a similar issue of algorithms introduced to produce the desired election results, but the electoral agency defied the Supreme Court’s orders to open their servers.

"Maybe the records will be found in Cambridge Analytica’s servers.We also know that the firm was responsible for dirty election campaign propaganda depicting me as an anarchist who would make Kenya hell on earth. These matters should be investigated not just in Europe, but also in Kenya," Raila told The Nation.

Odinga further dismissed sentiments from some quarters that he had abandoned his push for electoral reforms.

He stated that electoral justice would be addressed, noting that a Committee of Experts would soon be unveiled to formulate  structures and timelines to ensure the objectives of the MoU are met.

The opposition boss further declared that the Resist campaign, which included boycotts of certain companies and civil disobedience, would be revived if the talks proved to be unproductive.

[caption caption="Raila Odinga with Uhuru Kenyatta at Harambee House"][/caption]