Safaricom says the system that will facilitate the electronic collection of regional voting results in the Kenyan elections is entirely safe, in spite of concerns over data security and reliance on a single network provider.
The results of votes cast around Kenya at 33,000 regional polling stations will be transmitted to a central station in Nairobi – located at the Bomas of Kenya – for counting via a Safaricom system.
Bob Collymore, chief executive officer (CEO) of Safaricom, has vowed the bespoke virtual private network (VPN) set aside for the elections is entirely secure, and that the system is tried-and-tested.
“The integrity of the Safaricom system has always been unquestioned. No one has ever broken into that system,” Collymore told Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation.
“Inevitably, when you get the kind of traffic we are likely to get between Monday (March 4) and Wednesday, networks are susceptible to challenges, but when it does, we will discuss with the IEBC [Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission] on the way forward,” he added.
Collymore also noted the company has been developing the system for over a year, and highlighted Safaricom’s experience and success managing the transmission of data during the 2010 referendum.
According to Safaricom, the data transmitted over the network is not visible to the operator and as such remains private, with the operator performing the sole action of transmitting the message.
