I Hacked IEBC Servers, Man Tells Kisumu High Court

A witness in a petition in which former Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma is challenging his successor Anyang' Nyongo's election alleges that he hacked into a Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) server during the August 8th elections.

Appearing before Kisumu High Court on Wednesday, Levy Otieno Oduor, who claimed to be an expert in information technology and an employee of Safaricom, defended his action to infiltrate IEBC's electronic result transmission system, arguing that public interest overrides ethics.

While being cross-examined by Ranguma’s lawyer Richard Onsongo, Otieno said Prof Nyong’o was the beneficiary of the hacking.

“When I accessed the server I realized that there was deletion of files which were form 37A which gave room for fresh ones to be uploaded,” said Otieno.

Otieno further pointed out that the person manipulating the results in the IEBC servers used nmigot@iebc.org.ke as login credentials.

“I don’t know the relationship between the person who logged in and the respondent, but what I know is there was a Nicholas Migot in Prof Nyong’o’s campaigns.”

Questioned on how he managed to access into IEBC servers, he said he was given login credentials by a person he did not mention. “I was not alone while accessing the server. I had a contact who was helping me. I used FileZilla to access logs,” said Otieno.

Asked by IEBC lawyer Edwin Mukele whether he understood that infiltrating IEBC system was an offence, the IT expert he was right and wrong at the same time. “I have a responsibility as a Kenyan citizen to ensure that the efficacy of a free, fair and credible election is achieved. I had a role and I played it well,” he told Mukele.

Prof Nyong’o’s lawyer, Siaya Senator James Orengo, however, poked holes into Otieno's hacking allegations. “The beauty about science is that it leaves a trail of transaction. What footprint did you leave when you accessed the server?” posed Orengo to Otieno who was silent for sometime before he asked to be given a chance to access IEBC result transmission system again (to prove his claims).