The Opposition has called for the resignation of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) CEO Ezra Chiloba and elections operations director Immaculate Kasait, whom they accused of acting in cahoots with State House in awarding ballot printing tender to Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing LLC, with only 53 days remaining to the general election.
Consequently, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has called a crisis meeting of presidential candidates, following the accusations of tainted tender award for printing ballot papers to the Dubai firm, from the opposition.
“Information in our possession indicates that IEBC boss Chiloba and director Kasait were the contacts in the decision to award the tender unprocedurally and illegally to Al Ghurair,” said NASA co-principal, Musalia Mudavadi.
IEBC awarded the tender to Al Ghurair last year to supply and deliver the ballot papers for the August 8 General Election. The opposition is linking the firm to the first family, with the president’s brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, being termed as the firm’s local agent in Kenya.
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“We want President Uhuru Kenyatta to come clean on his and his family’s links with the Dubai firm and state his interests in the contract that the firm was awarded. The interest, in our view, is clear. The President and his Jubilee team are looking for a firm that can supply extra ballots secretly as was the case in 2013,” said Mudavadi.
On October 18 2016, the commission, through its Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba, wrote to Al Ghurair printing firm, notifying it that its bid for the supply and delivery of 130 million ballot papers, election declaration forms and poll registers had been accepted.
Uhuru’s close allies
According to documents quoted by the Daily Nation, the Dubai printer was the only one out of the nine bidders who went past the technical evaluation stage and was thus picked automatically. The other eight firms that placed their bids for the lucrative tender are Ellams Products Ltd (Kenya), Manipal Technologies (India), Paarl Media (South Africa), Kl-hitech (India), Eabaltijas (Lativia), Digital Printing Supply (Italy), Tall Security Printing (UK) and United Printing and Publishing (UK).
In a statement released Wednesday, June 14, the opposition coalition detailed how Uhuru, his close allies, the IEBC and the Al Ghurair firm are colluding to rig the election in favour of the NASA leaders Mr Odinga and Mr Wetangula had previously met IEBC officials where they complained of the alleged links between the Dubai firm and the First Family.
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Mr Chebukati expressed concern that the NASA “narrative dangerously” derails the commission from executing its mandate to conduct the August election but maintained that the preparation of ballot material through Al Ghurair remained on course.
Deputy President William Ruto accused the opposition of unpreparedness for this year’s election, saying it’s the reason they are challenging the tender award to Al Ghurair.
Public confidence
“NASA is not ready for elections. They claim Jubilee is interested in the company awarded the tender to print ballot papers. The tender can be awarded to any other company, even if it is Spectre which belongs to Raila Odinga, because it is Kenyans who will decide, not the printer,” said Ruto, who spoke in Busia yesterday in a campaign tour.
In a bid to win public confidence, IEBC announced the offer to fly representatives of presidential candidates, media, religious organisations and private sector to accompany them to Dubai to witness the printing of the ballot papers.
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