Wangusi accuses NASA of blanket lynching telco firms over nullified poll

Wangusi accuses NASA of blanket lynching telco firms over nullified poll

Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Francis Wangusi has refuted claims by National Super Alliance (NASA) leader, Raila Odinga, that leading mobile telecommunications provider Safaricom was  involved in the manipulation of presidential election results on August 8 in favour of Jubilee Party candidate, President Uhuru Kenyatta.

On Tuesday, September 26, during a press conference at his Capitol Hill office, Raila alleged that Safaricom conspired with French biometric systems provider Safran and Morpho and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials to deny him a win in the now nullified August 8 polls.

In a statement sent to newsrooms on Wednesday, September 27, Wangusi dismissed the allegations as ‘blanket lynching’ of heavy investment in the local ICT sector by different players.

The CA boss said that the telecommunications regulator was aware that IEBC contracted three mobile operators to provide a medium of the end-to-end transmission of election results in line with the Elections Regulations, 2017.

“IEBC upon our advice divided the country into three zones and each of the three mobile operators was assigned one region to support the transmission systems of the commission.  In each of the three zones, an additional mobile operator was assigned the responsibility of providing back up services in case of technology failure,” Wangusi said.

Transmission failure

He added that in line with CA’s oversight responsibility as the ICT sector regulator, the authority directed the mobile operators to report any cases of transmission failure and stressed that no cases of transmission failure were reported.

Wangusi urged Kenyans to have faith in the technology that will be deployed in the repeat presidential election saying that ICT has successfully been deployed in different facets including banking, business, education, health, agriculture and government services.

“As the country prepares for the repeat presidential poll, CA wishes to implore on Kenyans not to lose faith and confidence in technology. ICT has been successfully deployed and embraced in all facets of life in the country and elections are no exception the authority is confident that ICT can be deployed successfully to support this important national activity.” Wangusi said.

The repeat presidential election is slated for October 26.

Tags:

President Uhuru Kenyatta IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba CA Director General Francis Wangusi Independent Electoral and Boudaries Commission election stalemate KE NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga

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