Former US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was confident in the “integrity” of the Kenyan elections and praised the country’s election commission for its transparency and diligence on Thursday.
The 73-year-old politician is co-leading the Carter Center’s mission of election observers, who released their preliminary observations a day after opposition leader Raila Odinga claimed early electronic election results had been compromised by hackers.
Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) have a week to declare final results but it appears incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, who leads the Jubilee Alliance, is on track for an outright win, which requires one vote more than 50%.
“The process is still underway. But we believe that the election’s commission in Kenya has put together a process that will allow each and every vote’s integrity to be proven,” Kerry told CNN, noting that there were “little aberrations here and there.”
He reiterated that the IEBC is still working to verify the electronic online reporting with the physical ballot forms from polling stations, as required by law.
“If anything was electronically fiddled with, there is a way to go back and absolutely ascertain what happened in the polling station. So by paper ballots, there is a protection of each and every Kenyan’s vote.”
Odinga’s complaints of election irregularities have stoked fears of aggrieved supporters taking to the streets in a scenario reminiscent of violence that erupted in the aftermath of the December 2007 election.
More than 1,000 people were killed in a campaign of ethnic violence in the months after Odinga — defeated by then-President Mwai Kibaki — claimed that the vote was rigged.
Odinga’s opposition party, the National Super Alliance, has repeatedly called for calm as the final results are compiled.
“We do not want to see any violence in Kenya. We know the consequences of what happened in 2008 and we don’t want to see a repeat of that anymore,” Odinga told CNN on Thursday.
“I don’t control anybody. What is happening is that people just want to see justice. We also hope that the security forces are not going to use excessive force.”
Pockets of unrest
Tuesday’s election in Kenya, the biggest economy in East Africa and a regional hub, was a peaceful and enthusiastic affair with a huge turnout and a few minor delays and technical issues reported.
But confrontations emerged a day later between police and protesters in opposition strongholds in the capital and the western city of Kisumu, leaving at least two people dead.
On Thursday, Nairobi appeared to be somewhat quieter than usual, possibly due to school holidays and some concern from residents about potential violence. But people were returning to their daily routines following the national holiday on Tuesday, and some businesses were open.
Over 400 international election observers — including officials from the US and the European Union — were deployed across the country to monitor voting, the tallying process and some of the post-election period.
Speaking at a news conference earlier on Thursday, Marietje Schaake, the head of the EU’s mission, confirmed it had seen “no signs of centralized or localized manipulation” after assessing voting procedures.
Preliminary online results from the IEBC website showed that with 97% of stations reporting, Kenyatta was leading with 54.32% of the votes to Odinga’s 44.8%.
But Schaake emphasized that the vote count and verification were still underway.
She added: “To date, the IEBC has demonstrated its commitment to transparency in the results process including by putting results forms online.”
Failed attempt to hack system
Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the voting authority, disclosed at a news conference in Nairobi on Thursday that there had been an unsuccessful attempt to tamper with its election system.
“The commission has responded to the claims by [the National Super Alliance]. Preliminary reports show hacking was attempted but did not succeed,” Chebukati revealed without elaborating further on the failed hack.
Odinga, a 72-year-old former political prisoner who was running for president for a fourth time, flatly rejected the preliminary results as “fake” the day before.
He alleged that hackers had infiltrated the election authority’s systems using the identity of Chris Msando, a election official who was tortured and murdered a week before the vote.
“What the IEBC has posted as results of the Presidential Elections is a complete fraud based on a multiplier that fraudulently gave Uhuru Kenyatta votes that were not cast,” he said in a series of tweets.
“We have uncovered the fraud. Uhuru must go home. The IEBC must be fully accountable,” he added.
