'Tampered IEBC servers, rejected ballots,' Moses Kuria claims how 2013 elections were rigged to favour Uhuru

The ghosts of election rigging have resurfaced in Kenya's political landscape, with former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria claiming that he and other politicians orchestrated a scheme to rig the 2013 elections.

Speaking on Inooro FM radio, Kuria, in an apparent tit-for-tat reply to former President Uhuru Kenyatta's claims on how the late Raila Odinga was denied victory, upped the stealing allegations, taking it back to 2013.

Kuria confessed to underhanded moves and a legal battle over rejected votes and alleged tampering with IEBC servers to avoid a runoff in 2013 and hand Uhuru the victory.

"Uhuru knows better what we did for him in 2013 and 2017. He knows the strategy we applied. In 2013, he got the +1 of around six thousand votes. There was the question of the rejected votes, which were to be counted, but Itumbi, Jematiah and I went to court and it was ruled that the rejected votes should not be counted and that is how Uhuru won in 2013, otherwise, he had not won,” he said.

Kuria says a court battle that saw him, together with other politicians, challenge the counting of rejected votes was the saving grace for Kenyatta in the 2013 presidential contest.

"In 2017 he won, but in 2013, we were supposed to have a runoff; he knows it. I saved him from the runoff; I went to court through our lawyer Fred Ngatia and Njoroge Regeru. If we had not gone to court to challenge the legality of rejected votes, Uhuru would have gone for a runoff,” he added.

The former CS also alleges that results had to be altered in the IEBC servers in order to grant Uhuru a win.

"We even did something in the servers to save him; we did it with Davis Chirchir to save him from facing Baba in a runoff, so it was not easy in 2013,” Kuria noted.

The revelations by Kuria, seen to counter Uhuru's recent remarks, have now opened a can of worms on the transparency of electoral processes in the country, with Kuria floating names of senior officials in government with whom he says they colluded.

Uhuru on Tuesday cast doubt on the legitimacy of President William Ruto's 2022 General Election victory, claiming he knows the late Raila Odinga won.

According to the former Head of State, he is certain that Mr Odinga won the 2022 polls, hinting at a scheme to bungle the outcome that secured President Ruto's win.