IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati has ordered his commission’s CEO Ezra Chiloba to suspend ICT Director James Muhati, ICT Coordinator Paul Mugo and ICT officer Boniface Wamae.
Chebukati says the move is aimed at restoring public confidence with the IEBC ahead of the upcoming repeat polls. The chairman made the orders through an internal memo to the CEO.
According to Chebukati, the three failed to assist the commission competently in discharging its mandate.
“This suspension is necessary to not just restore the waning public confidence in the commission’s ability to prepare and deliver credible polls but also assert the integrity and fidelity of the commission to the rule of law,” Mr. Chebukati writes in the memo.
Mr. Muhati and the two officers were in charge of the commission’s Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) platform during the August 8 General Election and Mr. Chebukati notes that the ICT security framework and security measures deployed failed to eliminate the risk of external interference with the commission’s systems.
The Chairman further says that the framework failed to address internal vulnerabilities posed by ICT officers, somewhat acquiring super administrator access to the server that was used by the IEBC for their day-to-day operations.
“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 the official purpose of transmitting forms 34Bs,” Mr. Chebukati tells Mr. Chiloba in the memo as quoted by Daily Nation.