[kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised

Wed Feb 13 11:59:30 EAT 2013

+1 Robert

*Ali Hussein*

*CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd*

*Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd
*

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On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> Hi Harry,
>
> Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it
> is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a
> private but a public record.
>
> When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers
> therefore your voter registration information is public information.
>
> I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil
> the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election
> being compromised?
>
> My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership
> and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for
> scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the
> data (IPv4).  All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few
> which means that the playing field is therefore uneven.
>
> With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially
> since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their
> agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like
> this reduce themselves to rock painters.
>
> In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya"
> campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define
> a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to
> respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the
> training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no
> one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to
> make any assumptions based on name.
>
> After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households
> across the country are members of the tribe "kenya".  If I had a way of
> contacting this fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a
> better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of
> the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
>
> In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls
> done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample
> distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they
> registered voters.  This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter
> register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we
> would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your
> mobile phone.  The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report
> provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
>
> Regards
>
> Robert Yawe
> KAY System Technologies Ltd
> Phoenix House, 6th Floor
> P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
> Kenya
>
> Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Harry Karanja <kkairo at gmail.com>
> *To:* robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
>
> On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya
> Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized
> access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is
> highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also
> discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge
> had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from
> a UK number.
>
> What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data
> without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable
> and how do I do this?  As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or
> marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my
> surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be
> another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies
> the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or
> India)
>
> The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this
> list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more
> efficient.
>
> Regards,
> Harry Karanja
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.ca> wrote:
>
>  Harry,
>
> Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data
> protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left
> “hurriedly” without enacting it?
>
> The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and
> scary, to say the least.
>
> Edith
>
>  *From:* kictanet [
> mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca at lists.kictanet.or.ke<kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca at lists.kictanet.or.ke>]
> *On Behalf Of *Harry Karanja
> *Sent:* February 10, 2013 10:44 PM
> *To:* Edith Adera
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> *Subject:* [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
>
>  Listers,
>
>  This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider,
> one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me
> to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the
> best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number
> and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual
> information is the IEBC during voter registration.
>
>  Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making
> voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise?
> I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
>
>  Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if
> politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I
> previously blogged (
> http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.html
> ) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but
> it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a
> country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
>
>  I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our
> personal information and if my experience this morning portends the
> compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
>
> Regards,
>  Harry Karanja
>
>  Sent from my iPad
>
>
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>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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