Kenya court blames electoral body for nullified vote

Suspicions of foul play in an election are becoming very common around the world, as our new technology makes the computer system more vulnerable to attacks.  In Kenya, opposition leaders suspect foul play in this year's election.  The current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, supposedly won this election by 1.4 million votes. According to the court, the results didn’t include all of the tally forms. Some of these forms lacked authenticity, due to missing components like watermarks or signatures. Also, these tally forms weren’t made available immediately to the courts, causing some speculation, and the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) denied the court access to its computer system. Furthermore, the Supreme Court dismissed all the claims against Kenyatta, saying that he did nothing wrong. To be clear, Kenya has used two parallel systems after the 2007 elections- the electronic tally and a paper system. The electronic system is more likely to hold errors, so it is obvious that there could be speculations against a system that has its flaws. Unfortunately, the opposition didn’t like the courts ruling, and protests may escalate as the time goes on.

Joseline Jimenez

Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/170920173121231.html