No One Will Interfere With Election Servers – CS Mucheru

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug, 4 – ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru allayed fears that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) servers were susceptible to external interference.

Mucheru said that the upcoming political contest’s integrity will be protected at all costs further saying that access to the storage of election information component can only be accessed upon orders by a court of law.

The government has also said that it will not allow the upgrade of the network during the elections in order to minimize power failures during the election cycle.

This came even as rumours spread of an impending plan to shut down live broadcasts in the country as well as Kenyan’s access to the internet.

“We’re not shutting down internet or media unless we have a security or national issue,” he said during a meeting with members of the Kenya Editors Guild in Nairobi.

According to the IEBC, 26,680 out of 27,410 polling centres are currently covered by the network which is 97.3 per cent coverage.

Areas with no network will however be provided with satellites. Mucheru said that Austatech Satellite firm has been contracted to provide the services in several areas, especially in Northern Kenya.

Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers are also expected to be deployed in the areas susceptible to terror attacks with a keen focus on residents’ safety and protection of government installations.

“Results will be sent on an hourly basis. Safaricom has assured us that the network will work well without interference,” said Mucheru.

“Safaricom is in a better place in terms of infrastructure than it was five years ago. Our coverage network covers a scope of 96 per cent of the polling stations,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.

Ndegwa meanwhile clarified the role of Safaricom staff saying that they would only provide network provision but not access any election information.

Safaricom was selected by the government as the main network provider with Airtel and Telcom serving as a backup.