Azimio will concede if servers show Ruto beat Raila – Senator Madzayo

Senate Minority Leader Stewart Madzayo now says the opposition will only accept the outcome of the last presidential election after the proposed audit of the electoral servers holding the results.

Speaking during an interview with a local radio station on Wednesday, April 5, the Kilifi Senator said Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition will concede defeat if the audit of the servers shows that President William Ruto beat their leader Raila Odinga in the poll.

“It is so simple, when we say open the servers, what is the big deal about that? If you won, you won, if we have lost, we have lost,” Senator Madzayo said.

“At the end of the day once you open the servers all Kenyans will have a sigh of relief and know exactly who won the elections.”

The lawmaker suggested that opening servers will require experts from both Azimio and President Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

Raila claims he won the poll but was rigged out in a wider scheme involving top officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), including former chairman Wafula Chebukati.

The former prime minister insists that he won the elections with 8.9 million votes according to revelations made by a whistleblower allegedly working at the poll agency, against Ruto’s 5.9 million votes.

“My people, they stole the election, the whistleblower clearly shows it. Otherwise, they’d open the server; what’s the fear? They then corrupted the Supreme Court like they did with the IEBC,” Raila said in a tweet last month.

To prove his case, Raila maintains that IEBC servers must be opened and scrutinised to show who won the poll.

Yesterday, the Azimio leader said the proposed engagement with President Ruto’s administration that saw the opposition call off their weekly demonstrations must address the issue of servers as a matter of urgency.

Attempts to interfere with servers

Speaking after a consultative meeting with Azimio leaders, Raila claimed that there were attempts to interfere with the August 2022 election servers.

“We understand that some people are trying to tamper with the servers. They need to know that we are watching them. We know it and that is why we are talking about a forensic audit by experts so that the truth can come out,” he said.

At the same time, Raila said a parliamentary process proposed by Ruto may not be effective in addressing the opposition’s grievances that also touch on the cost of living and the legitimacy of the current administration.

The former prime minister stated that the Azimio leadership wants to have a conversation at the national level through a process akin to the 2008 National Accord, which was brokered by Koffi Annan following the disputed 2007 presidential election results.

“It is the resolution of this meeting that a purely parliamentary process may not serve the intended ends. Our suggestion is to have a conversation at the national level through a process akin to the 2008 National Accord,” Raila said after a meeting with Azimio principals.

“To this end the coalition proposes a team drawn from its ranks both in Parliament and outside Bunge.”

The Head of State on Sunday extended an olive branch to the opposition supremo and proposed a bipartisan parliamentary engagement to address concerns raised on the reconstitution of the IEBC.