Was Kenya's Election Hacked?
August 14 2017 By Abiodun Giwa
Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta
"We have caught them. Hackers gained entry into the election database through Mr Msando's account ...," Mr Odinga told a press conference on Wednesday, the Daily Nation reported. However, the report said that the IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said the hackers' attempt was unsuccessful.
Raila Odinga's assertion that hackers gained entry into Mr. Msando's account will renew discussions on the role that the murder of the electoral manager may have played in the elections.
First, it is notable to hear that the reason Mr. Msando was murdered was to enable yet unknown people access the Kenya's electoral body's database with his password. Chebukati's refutal that effort to hack the account was botched failed the trust test.
Did Chebukati announced to the public that anyone attempted to hack the website before Odinga's public outcry that the electoral body's database was hacked and that the presidential election results had been doctored to favor the incumbent? Aside from raising eyebrows concerning the election, Mr. Msando's relations will also see clearly that Mr. Msando was murdered by people with a plan to hack the electoral body's database.
This development has saved members of Mr. Msando's family from further question about who may have killed Mr. Msando, especially Mr. Msando's wife, who said that she failed to inform police about Mr. Msando's missing from home three days after he was not seen, because according to her, Mr. Msando was accustomed to staying away like that.
Investigators will now have to zero in on the possible member of the electoral body who may have compromised to assist yet unknown outsiders or whom among the candidates the hackers intended to help in the elections. It also means that Mr. Msando may have been tortured to release his password, before he was murdered to cover up the compromise of the electoral body's database, before the election.
With this development, the election result that has returned Uhuru Kenyatta for a second term in office is without doubt under serious questions. Chebukati will have to prove to the public that what he had said in the media, that the hacking was botched. And the Kenyan government must step into this matter or at best institute an independent body to investigate, because the reelected incumbent's credibility is at stake here.
Mr. Chris Msando, a senior manager at Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, IEBC, was murdered about 10 days to the election. Questions were raised about why he was murdered along with a lady, whom he had along with him the night he was killed. Their bodies were discovered in a bush near each other.
The Kenyan government cannot say it has no interest to get to the bottom of this development. Mr. Msando's killers must be arrested, and their reasons for hacking or attempt to hack the election, using Mr. Msando's password must be revealed. Of course, if Odinga has enough evidence that the IEBC's database was hacked by anyone using Msando's password, he must feel free to press ahead and seek justice in a court of law.
Raila Odinga's assertion that hackers gained entry into Mr. Msando's account will renew discussions on the role that the murder of the electoral manager may have played in the elections.
First, it is notable to hear that the reason Mr. Msando was murdered was to enable yet unknown people access the Kenya's electoral body's database with his password. Chebukati's refutal that effort to hack the account was botched failed the trust test.
Did Chebukati announced to the public that anyone attempted to hack the website before Odinga's public outcry that the electoral body's database was hacked and that the presidential election results had been doctored to favor the incumbent? Aside from raising eyebrows concerning the election, Mr. Msando's relations will also see clearly that Mr. Msando was murdered by people with a plan to hack the electoral body's database.
This development has saved members of Mr. Msando's family from further question about who may have killed Mr. Msando, especially Mr. Msando's wife, who said that she failed to inform police about Mr. Msando's missing from home three days after he was not seen, because according to her, Mr. Msando was accustomed to staying away like that.
Investigators will now have to zero in on the possible member of the electoral body who may have compromised to assist yet unknown outsiders or whom among the candidates the hackers intended to help in the elections. It also means that Mr. Msando may have been tortured to release his password, before he was murdered to cover up the compromise of the electoral body's database, before the election.
With this development, the election result that has returned Uhuru Kenyatta for a second term in office is without doubt under serious questions. Chebukati will have to prove to the public that what he had said in the media, that the hacking was botched. And the Kenyan government must step into this matter or at best institute an independent body to investigate, because the reelected incumbent's credibility is at stake here.
Mr. Chris Msando, a senior manager at Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, IEBC, was murdered about 10 days to the election. Questions were raised about why he was murdered along with a lady, whom he had along with him the night he was killed. Their bodies were discovered in a bush near each other.
The Kenyan government cannot say it has no interest to get to the bottom of this development. Mr. Msando's killers must be arrested, and their reasons for hacking or attempt to hack the election, using Mr. Msando's password must be revealed. Of course, if Odinga has enough evidence that the IEBC's database was hacked by anyone using Msando's password, he must feel free to press ahead and seek justice in a court of law.
