Live blog: Governor Erick Mutai’s impeachment trial enters second day

Senior Counsel Katwa Kigen cross-examines the fifth witness Rogony.

Rogony denies allegations of proxy voting or casting multiple votes on behalf of other County Assembly members.

Rogony testifies that Sh9 million from the Londiani Accident Fund donations meant for victims never reached them.

The fifth witness for the County Assembly, Rotich Rogony (MCA, Sigowet Ward), takes the oath before examination-in-chief.

Rogony was the mover of the impeachment motion at the County Assembly.

Senator Otieno Kajwang: "Four MCAs contested whether they voted or not. Three of them had the same IP during voting. Could you explain how that occurred, and if you are challenged to provide the MAC addresses of the devices they were using, are you able to provide that to differentiate the votes of the three?"

Kajwang added, "I listened in amazement as the council for the county assembly said they copied and pasted logs. In 2017, a similar matter came up before the Supreme Court. It was established that logs cannot be verifiable if not extracted in the presence of both parties. It is, therefore, difficult to admit logs generated by one party, copied and pasted, where counsel admits there are errors."

Screengrab of Senator Otieno Kajwang.

Senator Danson Mungatana, "We are 47 Senators, just as you are 47 MCAs in your county. During voting, we take at least two minutes when the system is running. It is five minutes for you. Your Standing orders allow five minutes, but you had 11 minutes and 44 seconds. What was happening in between? You also indicated you were camping in the system as the administrator. Is this system really foolproof?"

Screengrab of Senator Danson Mungatana.

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, "How many people, according to you, voted?"

Bett, "33."

Screengrab of Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka.

Meru Senator Murungi Kathuri: "The expert has alluded to the fact that the system was never tested by the MCAs. Not everybody is an ICT expert. It is today that I am learning Senator Wambua has knowledge in ICT. I thought he was just a journalist. I am an environmentalist. We have a system in the Senate, but we did orientation when the system was installed."

Screengrab of Meru Senator Murungi Kathuri.

Senator Enoch Wambua," Is the IP address assigned to a gadget or to an individual?"

"The first two numbers in the IP address are assigned to the network," said Bett. "The rest are for the gadget.

Screengrab of Senator Enoch Wambua.

Senator Veronicah Maina, " When did you create the electronic voting system?"

Bett: "When the Standing Orders were amended. We were not so fast in creating it... Two days before the voting, it went live."

Screengrab of Senator Veronicah Maina.

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi invites the plenary to question the witness or counsel.

Screengrab of Senate Speaker Amason Kingi.

Bett clarifies the data logs he presented to the Senate...

"Other than what you printed, is the raw data still available on the system, untampered with and uncopied?" asked lawyer Mutuma.

"It is," said Bett.

As to why there were duplications, Bett explained that the mode of copying printing the logs generated the sequencing errors.

"The logs were five pages. So, I had to copy, page by page, and paste into Notepad - that is where the duplications occurred," Bett clarified.

Screengrab of ICT expert Geoffrey Bett.

In defence of the County, lawyer Elias Mutuma took Bett through the Assembly's voting process, demonstrating its resilience and trustworthiness.

Mutuma: "Did the development of this system comply with the policy of Kericho County Assembly?"

"Yes, it did," said Bett.

"You confirm that you were not in chambers during the voting, correct?"

"Yes, I wasn't"

"So if there was voting in the Chambers, it cannot be from you," asked Mutuma.

Bett: "Yes."

Screengrab of lawyer Elias Mutuma.

Bett pressed to explain the duplicitous IP address use during the voting process.

"There is an IP address number 41139237129, an MCA for Kedowa Kamugul voted 'Yes'; that same address appears for Soliat MCA. This IP address appears nine times. On the face of these logs, nine MCAs voted using one gadget, yet only three MCAs were assisted to vote," posed lawyer Peter Wanyama.

"The Chamber has one router, which has a static IP, which we normally use for the livestream. Static IP does not change; the others have dynamic IPs," responded Bett.

Screengrab of awyer Peter Wanyama.

ICT expert, Bett, speaks on the development of the system used to vote.

"You developed the system a day before voting," asked Kigen. "The system came live a day before," answered Bett.

"Do you have a stand-alone policy or manual on the use of that system?"

"We have standing orders," said Bett.

Kigen: "As it were, on the morning of the voting, even the Speaker did not know whether there was a voting system... How come the MCAs knew of the system?"

"Because of the Standing Orders," answered Bett.

"So, the Speaker didn't know of the Standing Orders?" Kigen fired back.

Screengrab of Geofrey Bett.

Governor Mutai's lawyer, Katwa Kigen, takes the ICT expert, Bett, on his affidavit, indicating that only 48 people had access to the system.

"That is the 47 MCAs and the system administrator?" posed Kigen. "You appreciate that our case is that four MCAs were voted for, isn't it? The only other person who could have voted for them, if it was the case, is yourself, Bett... isn't it?"

To which Bett responded, "It can't be the administrator because I was logged in to monitor the voting."

"But you had all the protocols; ID number, password and the username," Kigen fired back.

"Yes..." responded Bett.

Screengrab of Lawyer Katwa Kigen.

Kipng'eno Geofrey Bett, formerly the Chief Officer for ICT, testifies in the impeachment trial over the county's voting process, logs and the assembly's devices leading to Governor Mutai's impeachment.

Screengrab of ICT expert Geofrey Bett.