IEBC system wasnt hacked, French firm says

The French bio-metrics firm that supplied the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with electronic devices and technology for the August 8 General Election has denied the National Super Alliance (NASA) allegations that someone hacked into the system and manipulated presidential results to president Uhuru Kenyatta’s favor.

According to the French company, a merger between OT (Oberthur Technologies) and Morpho (Safran Identity & Security), an extensive audit with the help of external experts revealed that the systems in no way suffered manipulation of data or hacking attempts.

Seeking to put the record straight, OT Morpho says its role was to supply 45,000 KIEMS kits that were used to identify voters at the 40,883 polling stations while also transmitting results in text and scanned images formats to the constituency returning centers and the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.

OT Morpho insists that its role ended at the display of provisional results at the screens displayed at Bomas, but as for the computation of final tally they were not involved, indicating that IEBC officials were responsible of the preparation of results declaration forms at constituencies, forms 34B and subsequent transmission to the national tallying centre where the national returning officer and IEBC Chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, computed results based on the forms sent by his officials and not OT Morpho.

OT Morpho is now waiting for the Supreme Court final judgment while threatening to take legal action including libel suits against people who claim they allowed hacking of the transmission system.