Azimio leader Raila Odinga has said he will halt demonstrations if the IEBC servers are opened and it is established that President William Ruto indeed won the elections.
Among the reasons cited for the looming demonstrations, is the need for the election servers to be opened and an audit conducted using a reputable firm.
Raila said it would only be fair for Kenyans to know the truth about what happened during the election period.
This is considering that there are two conflicting sets of data on the presidential vote count; data from the IEBC and data from the whistleblower.
“If he (President William Ruto) agrees to open the server and it transpires indeed he is the one who won, the call (protest) will not be there,” he said.
Official results released by the IEBC showed that Ruto won with 7.1 million votes against Raila’s 6.9 million.
The data by a whistle-blower, however, differed from the numbers declared by the election body.
He said Raila got 8,170,355 (57.53 per cent) while Ruto got 5,915,973 (41.66 per cent).
In the past, Raila has accused the ex-IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati of interference with the body’s ICT infrastructure and shortchanging his win.
He said opening the servers is the only way to restore confidence in IEBC and give legitimacy to the leadership that emerged from the election.
The demand was among those Ruto had been given the 14-day ultimatum.
Commenting on the matter, Ruto said as the President, he was mandated with serving Kenyans not opening servers.
“Where in the constitution does it say that it is the responsibility of the President to go and open servers?” he asked.
He spoke on March 2, when he addressed women leaders during the re-launch of the Women Enterprise Fund and Second Product of the Hustler Fund at KICC.
“I am busy, if you people have time, you can go and open the servers. I am busy working on Hustler Fund, Women Enterprise Fund and food distribution,” he said.
