The mobile operator through a statement said their role in the results transmission was only limited to providing their network but not the software that was used to transmit the results.
Safaricom's role is simply to provide connectivity between the mobile devices and the IEBC tallying centers. Safaricom did not and does not have any role in the technical design, management or specification of the servers, the mobile software application nor the graphic presentation of the results data used by the IEBC, CEO Bob Collymore said.
He explained that Safaricom was one of several service providers contracted by the IEBC to provide network connectivity for the electronic transmission of electoral results.
In accordance with the terms of our contract with the IEBC, Safaricom’s responsibilities were twofold, the first was to provide the virtual private network (VPN) for the conveyance of the results from polling stations across the country previously identified as having sufficient mobile coverage to the IEBC’s constituency, county and national tallying center infrastructure.
The Safaricom boss said the second was to deliver 17,900 original manufacturer warranted handsets to the IEBC for use by polling staff for purposes of transmitting electronic results.
Safaricom was neither involved in the supply of the software to be used on the mobile handsets nor the distribution and storage of the devices,€ Collymore added.
The mobile telecommunication firm said they were issuing the statement following numerous queries from the media and in response to public concern.
Although IEBC has conceded that their system failed, the polls€™ body is yet to clarify on the nature of the failure of the system that cost taxpayers billions of shillings to procure.
By yesterday, Kenyan were still left to speculate on the cause of the collapse with suspicions of hacking topping the list of would be reasons.
Safaricom sought to clarify further their role saying the observed traffic on the VPN they provided did not exceed 3.5 Megabytes per second (Mbps) at any time.
When put in to context this is a small fraction of the 3,000 Mbps traffic we observe at any time in our network.
The Safaricom chief said the total number of mobile devices provisioned to be used by the IEBC polling staff to relay results on the Safaricom VPN were 32,000, which represents only 2 per cent of the 1.5 million devices connected to their data network at any given time.
He said that they have provided unrestricted access to representatives of the 8 presidential candidates to assess and monitor its network performance.
The Safaricom mobile and virtual private network has remained robust with 100 per cent uptime in all areas where coverage was to be provided. As a responsible corporate citizen, Safaricom appreciates and takes seriously its assigned responsibilities and will continue to play its part to support the IEBC in its duties, Collymore added.
- The Standard
