IEBC on spot over awarding of Ksh4 Billion Kiems kit Tender
3 min readIEBC on spot over awarding of Ksh4 Billion Kiems kit Tender to a Netherlands firm, Smartmatic elections company.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission -IEBC is yet on spot again over the procurement of Kiems kit for the August polls.
IEBC had awarded Netherlands firm, Smartmatic elections company to supply the commission with Kiems kit (Kenya Integrated Election Management Systems).
However, it has emerged that the company has a bad history in past elections in other countries.
While addressing a joint media interview on election preparedness on Wednesday evening, July 13, IEBC CEO Hussein Marjan was hard-pressed to explain how the firm won the Ksh4 billion Kiems kit tender despite its past.
Marjan Hussein admitted he was unaware of certain facts relating the history of the Smartmatic company in previous elections, appearing cornered as the IEBC chairman remained silent.
The CEO was replying to a query from K24’s Ayub Abdukadir, who emphasized how the elections company was held accountable for the glitches in three countries’ computerized process, forcing the company to switch back to the manual method.
Journalist puts IEBC on spot
“You talked about the procurement process in awarding the company in procuring its services. Did you know that the cybercrimes Investigations and coordinations Act in Philipinnes after the 2016 elections called on its Smartmatics, it compromised the elections which led to the elections of President Rodrigo Duterte.”
“Did you know that in Uganda, the biometrics failed, resorting to them to revert the manual.. In Venezuela, the company in its own admission noted that the turnout voter system was manipulated by at least one million voters. Did you establish that before you awarded the company?” The journalist posed.
“No, I relied on the report of the evaluation committee did their due diligence, and provided me with the report. That is what I rely on. These issues were never cited.”
“This would require the company to respond. This information did not come to our attention. It would be proper at this time, for the company to respond to such queries,” Marjan stated.
The journalist called out the commission for not doing its due diligence by not being aware of the past flaws of the election process.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati was also hard pressed on how DP Ruto knew his supporters had been moved from one region to another.
Chebukati did not offer a meaningful response instead asking the journalist to inquire from the DP.
“We don’t know how they knew. Maybe that question should be addressed to the deputy president who came up with the statement,” he said.
Also read,
How IEBC Commissioners were caught off guard over surprise arrival of ballot papers
Azimio writes to IEBC over employing a majority of election officials from one community
IEBC suspends five officials over electoral malpractice
Azimio launch ‘Ten Million Women Votes for Martha’ Initiative, How to join
Follow us
