Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati's son has been linked to an irregularity that happened days ahead of the August 2017 election.
According to an article published by Star newspaper, the IEBC chair's son could have been involved in the testing of KIEMS kits.
Against the advice of IT experts in the commission, the chair is said to have taken kits and passwords to a "personal consultant".
Letters exchanged between the chair and Safran Morpho, the company that managed the kits, outlines that they were handed to a third party, whose name was withheld.
[caption caption="IEBC Chairman Chebukati accompanied by Consolata Maina who resigned from the commission"]
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The consultant, who is believed to have been the chairman's son, later generated a report that was used by Mr Chebukati to raise concerns with ten days to the election.
"In recovery mode, an individual with physical access to the device can - among other things - factory reset the EVID to the default Android system it came within less than one minute," he stated at the time.
He added that: "one EVID kit can scan multiple results transmission QR codes and recognize them. This implies that one kit can transmit results on behalf of another polling station."
The investigations further indicate that the IEBC boss went ahead to seek clarifications from Safran Morpho without consulting CEO Ezra Chiloba or the other commissioners.
"The findings came about through preliminary testing of the kit by an independent body in less than a day further testing is still going on. The findings can be replicated without any special permission and may cause the kits to fail on election day
"I hereby insist you respond to these queries with concrete suggestions on how to alleviate and/or eliminate the concerns raised. We can then convene to discuss the proposals," he wrote in an email dated July 24.
[caption caption="IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati during a past press briefing"]
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The email further observed: "I am head of Commission which comprises six commissioners and the CEO is the commission secretary. Am also the National Returning Officer of the Presidential Elections. In that regard, I must know everything in matters elections. This is a duty I must do within the framework of the Constitution and the laws of Kenya.
"I shall not at the moment give details of the procedure adopted and issues of the supervision of the testing or even details of the environment thereof. In case I do not hear from you; I shall then place the matter before the commissioners for open discussion," the correspondence concluded.
