In January this year, reports surfaced that ODM leader Raila Odinga would procure an election system to run parallel to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in 2017.
And in a report appearing in the dailies this week, Raila is said to be planning a massive electoral war chest estimated at Sh15 billion to ensure he trounces President Uhuru Kenyatta.
New revelations indicate that Raila has been privately working on an elaborate campaign strategy handled by a 14-member team.
This team comprises business, political and the civil society individuals. The team is operating discreetly and his traditional advisors have apparently been excluded.
Working with such a budget, the team has been holding regular meetings within the city to ensure that Raila, who is trying for the presidency the fourth time, gets the country’s top job.
Those close to him disclose that Raila will not spare financial and intellectual resources to make sure his bid is decisive.
Sources privy to the plan quoted by the Daily Nation say those behind the former prime minister are investing millions of shillings in a result tallying and relaying system.
In January, Raila was reportedly in talks with a German firm to provide the system to collect, transmit, tally and store presidential votes.
The dailies reported that the electronic system could be sourced from SAP, a multinational software firm.
This system will run parallel to that of the IEBC and will relay results in real-time from all corners of the country.
Those to man the "state-of-the-art" equipment will be IT experts reportedly flown from South Africa.
The equipment will be placed in a three-storey building in Nairobi until the results are announced.
But, won’t Raila be running a parallel government apparatus?
In the US election this year, Hillary Clinton ad Donald Trump were asked if they could accept the results of the elections.
Trump, who was seen as an underdog in the election, ran all along claiming that there was a high probability the election could be rigged. He said if Clinton won, he would not accept the results.
Is there a probability that Raila’s team could rig the election tilting the scales in their favour?
And, does the law allow for such an operation? If it does, which unbiased parties will oversee the results and declare their validity?
If the laws allow parallel tallying systems, the bodies mandated to oversee the election should ensure that no camp-Raila’s or Uhuru’s -manipulates the results as this could lead to the country erupting in chaos again.