NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 16 — House Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wa has called out Azimio Coalition labeling its leaders as hypocrites after damning election hacking revelations on Wednesday.
Ichung’wa led Kenya Kwanza-allied lawmakers on Thursday in calling out the Raila Odinga camp after a report indicated Israeli hackers infiltrated President William Ruto’s 2022 campaign in a scheme designed to give Azimio an advantage.
The legislators accused Odinga and his allies of being dishonest in claiming that he was rigged out.
“It does not come as a shock to us that indeed those who have always cried foul of elections being rigged are indeed the same people who had intent of influencing and election rigging,” Ichung’wa said.
He accused Odinga of fueling disinformation to discredit Ruto’s win which was certified by the Supreme Court.
The Kikuyu legislator asked Odinga to accept that he was defeated in the polls and let the country and Kenyans move on without disruptions by his ongoing political rallies.
“Odinga has always claimed that it is the system and the deep state that has always stolen his election. He not only had the system and the deep state, but he also had the means to hack into electoral systems and to those of his competitors,” he said.
“We want to ask Kenyans to ignore the calls to incitement by Odinga in his endeavor to look for another handshake that President William Ruto has been clear on that it will not happen, not happening and will never happen.”
He urged President Ruto not to be intimidated by the anti-government rallies staged by Odinga.
Hacking plot
A UK-based publication, the Guardian, reported on Wednesday that the hacking attempts which began in July 2022, exclusively targeted the then Deputy President William Ruto’s campaign, accessed Telegram and Gmail channels.
The report cited an investigation by an international media consortium which included over 100 investigative journalists.
Israeli hackers were able to access emails and private chats of digital strategist Dennis Itumbi and Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, then Ruto’s Chief of Staff.
Tal Hanan, an Israeli national and former military operative, led a team of experts in a disinformation campaign targeting elections around the world including African countries.
According to the Guardian, Hanan, who goes by the pseudonym “Jorge” ran the operation from an industrial park 20 miles north of Israel’s Capital Tel Aviv.
He is said to have boasted to the undercover reporters that he was able to disrupt elections through sabotage and disinformation services.
“Days before Kenya’s 2022 election, he gave a demonstration of his capabilities, showing how he could use hacking techniques to infiltrate the messages of political advisers,” The Guardian reported.
During his meetings with the undercover journalists, The Guardian said Hanan never explicitly confirmed he had been hired to work in Kenya nor revealed the identity of his client(s).
“However, when demonstrating Team Jorge’s capabilities to the journalists, who were posing as prospective clients, Hanan appeared to show them “live” demonstrations of hacks targeting three aides close to Ruto, who was a presidential candidate at the time,” The Guardian reported.
One demonstration involved an apparent infiltration of Gmail and another targeted Telegram accounts.
We mislead the hackers: Itumbi
Reacting to the new revelations, Itumbi said Thursday that there was increased activity on his Telegram towards the end of the campaign period.
He however pointed out the campaign used a few groups on Telegram to mislead hackers.
“Together with some other two people, [we had a group] to intentionally mislead those who were trying to obtain information illegally, we staged a communication on agents, saying how unnecessary they were and how costly the exercise was. We even concluded we will NOT pick agents,” Itumbi said.
Itumbi argued that based on the exposé they now “know the hackers believed our staged conversation.”
