IEBC dismisses Raila’s claims on firm contracted to print ballot papers
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has dismissed concerns by Azimio la Umoja - One Kenya coalition party presidential candidate Raila Odinga on the capacity of a firm contracted to print ballot papers to deliver ahead of the August general election.
The ODM leader had on June 5, 2022, claimed that the award of the contract to a Greek firm, Inform Lykos (Hellas) S.A, was of concern since the company had been linked to a last-minute postponement of elections in Nigeria in February 2019.
Speaking after being cleared to contest for the presidency at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi, the former Prime Minister alleged that the firm intends to sub-contract printing of ballot papers and other electoral materials to other printers.
"What measures has the commission put in place to ensure there are no lapses, both logistical and security, in the general election?" Raila posed.
IEBC responds
In a written response to Raila, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati termed the claims as false.
The IEBC boss said contrary to the allegation that Inform Lykos (Hellas) S.A occasioned postponement of elections in Nigeria, the company rescued the situation after the initially contracted firm failed to deliver materials as scheduled.
While expressing confidence in the firm's capacity to deliver, Chebukati affirmed that IEBC had conducted due diligence before engaging the company.
"Prior to the award of contract to the firm, the Commission conducted due diligence and established that the company has capacity to undertake printing of ballot papers. and that the firm will deliver on its contractual obligations without sub-contracting," he added.
On the status of data migration from the Morpho (Idemia) system to Smartmatic, Chebukati confirmed that the process is complete.
"The Commission successfully undertook data migration from Idemia (Morpho) platform to Smartmatic and is currently working on the Register of voters in a new environment," Chebukati noted.
Chebukati also agreed to release a report of an audit of the voter register conducted by KPMG at a later date.
He, however, disclosed that the commission had received a preliminary report that includes a finding of 246,456 dead voters.
The commission, he said, has begun the exercise of deregistering the dead voters in line with recommendations by KPMG.
Chebukati further disclosed that plans are in top gear to ensure each polling station is able to transmit election results electronically ahead of the polls slated for August 9.
The IEBC boss indicated that the Commission will deploy satellite technology to mitigate the network challenges in some regions.
"The Commission, depending on the availability of budget and extent of inadequate network coverage, will deploy satellite modems to mitigate against this challenge," Chebukati noted.
