The French company that was blamed by the National Super Alliance over the botched August 8 polls, says it will sue individuals in Kenya and in France for defamation.
OT-Morpho which was contracted to offer ICT services to the IEBC, says its name has been tainted and its reputation hurt following the allegations that the electoral body’s servers were hacked into and votes stolen.
The firm has strongly denied that there was any unauthorised access or attempts to infiltrate the IEBC IT system which it was supporting.
During an interview with Bloomberg, the OT-Morpho’s Chief Operating Officer Frederic Beylier said it will not allow the defamatory statements against it to go on.
“We do not intend to become the scapegoat of the political situation in Kenya. We do not accept the reputation of OT-Morpho and its employees to be tainted in any way by these allegations. This has to come to an end,” He said.
Nasa leaders including its presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, insist the system was hacked into and the August 8 presidential vote tally skewed in favour of the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The claims were the basis of his Supreme Court petition that led to the nullification of Kenyatta’s win which was declared by the electoral agency. Raila continues to repeat the claims on his public rallies.
The Opposition had demanded access to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission servers to prove his claims, a demand that it says was partially met.
Although OT-Morpho didn’t explicitly say who it plans to sue, Raila or any of the Nasa heads are likely targets of the defamation suit.
Beylier says an internal audit has ruled out any hacking as it had been alleged, rendering the claims by Raila null and void.
