DCI releases forensic analysis of electronic devices seized from Venezuelans

The Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) concluded its investigations on electronics confiscated from three Venezuelans arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) last month.

The three; Salvador Javier Suarez, Jose Gregorio Castellano, and Joel Gustavo Rodriguez, were found in possession of election materials during their arrests.

They were released under circumstances that Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai and IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati then said were the result of successful negotiations.

Detective Joseph Kolum, for the Director of the anti-terrorism unit, listed seven items recovered from the three Venezuelans and revealed details of critical information found in them.

The items include one TB external disc, one laptop, six flash disks, three mobile phones, one tablet, one SIM card and one monitor.

Detectives said the iPhone13 Pro Max and laptop recovered from the foreigners were unlike any other ordinary devices as they were highly encrypted and most probably used in secured communication.

The laptop and 1TB external disc were found with an IEBC database schematic diagram, IEBC network diagram, IEBC KIEMS kit, IEBC KIEMS kit deployment list, user name and passwords, local IP address configurations and Virtual Private Network (VPN) settings.

The DCI also discovered that 19 foreigners had administrative rights in the IEBC system where only 2 Kenyans had access.

An iPhone 13 Pro max recovered from Suarez, had phone contacts of IEBC employees, service providers technical teams from; Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Airtel Kenya and Thuraya.

A laptop seized from Castellano was found to have key information regarding the August 9, polls.

The report findings revealed that Castellano is one of the IEBC system administrators and was in a position to remotely access the entire IEBC data; he had the capacity to add, delete, or edit the entire IEBC system in any manner.

A mobile phone found with Rodriguez was found with private family photos/images, private family videos, IEBC system configuration, IEBC documents in Spanish language, Spanish calls logs, Spanish contacts and IEBC election actions plan.

The SIM card found with him had Spanish call logs, messages and foreign contacts.

The analysis was done on July 25. The ATPU boss now recommending an urgent forensic audit of the system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities, in the letter addressed to the DCI.