Azimio la Umoja Presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s legal team claimed that Venezuelan national, Jose Carmago, helped in election interference.
Lawyer Julie Soweto in her submission before the seven-judge bench on Friday, September 2, through a PowerPoint presentation, displayed a Form 34A which bore the name Jose Camargo.
According to Julie, the Form 34A bearing Camargo’s name was uploaded on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) portal.
The form belonged to Gacharagu Primary School polling station in Muguru ward in Meru County. She argued that his name is evidence enough that he was alegedly responsible for interfering with the forms and manipulating votes which were being uploaded on the IEBC portal
He added that the three were tasked with maintaining the technology and ensuring it worked effectively on the polling day.
She further argued that he reportedly played a key role in determining the President-elect.
“At the top-hand left corner there, we have the name of one the Venezuelans Jose Camargo. This is the person who decided the President-elect of the country,” she stated.
Soweto as well argued that Azimio La Umoja had earlier raised their concerns regarding Camargo and IEBC assured that they could not infiltrate the system.
“We didn’t make this up! We were told that we forged these forms, but this is how, My Lord, the staging was happening. This is on August 9 when we were told they (Venezuelans) did not have access to the system,” Soweto lamented.
In their response, the Directorate and Criminal Investigation (DCI) accused three Venezuelan nationals, Salvador Javier Suarez, Jose Castellano and Joel Garcia, of accessing the IEBC systems.
The trio were caught were IEBC materials while entering the country via the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“It was established that the confiscated exhibits had substantial information held in the IEBC systems are in full control of foreign employees of M/S Smartmatic International Holdings B.V. and Seamless Limited who have been contracted by IEBC,” the DCI stated in its report.
“The contract between IEBC and Smartmatic was for the supply and maintenance of the infrastructure that they had. It then meant that they had to bring their personnel to manage or monitor the smooth running of that system,” he stated.
“Before the election, these people were all logged out and on the date of the election, none of these people was in the system,” Gumbo added.
The IEBC legal team further dismissed Raila’s petition stating that it did not prove how the Venezuelans committed election fraud.
