IEBC Chairman orders suspension of three ICT officials

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries  Commission (IEBC) chairman Mr. Wafula Chebukati has ordered suspension of three officers in the ICT department.

According to Business Daily, Mr. Chebukati now wants CEO Ezra Chiloba to suspend ICT Director James Muhati, ICT Coordinator Paul Mugo and ICT officer Boniface Wamae.

Mr Chebukati said the move is part of the efforts to restore fading public confidence in the commission’s ability to prepare and hold a credible repeat presidential election.

The suspension directive looks set to heighten the turf wars between the commission and secretariat arising from the nullification of the August 8 presidential election.

The trio managed the commission’s Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) platform in the general election. The chairman said the three fell short in assisting the commission successfully discharge its constitutional role.

“The ICT security framework and security measures deployed in the general election failed to eliminate the risk of external interference as users with foreign IP address could log on to the commission’s system and perform functions before, during and after the elections,” Mr Chebukati said.

“In your subject memo, you have not responded as to why a server that was meant for day to day operations by staff was used for official purpose of transmitting forms 34Bs,” Mr Chebukati tells Mr Chiloba in the memo.

Business Daily also reported that Mr Chebukati had earlier asked Mr Chiloba in a leaked memo to explain why some election result forms lacked security features; explain the purchase of satellite phones that did not work and why hundreds of polling stations did not send results of the presidential election to the national tallying centre.

In the same Memo, Mr Chebukati also demanded an explanation on how an account created in his name was used to log onto the elections management system.