The National Super Alliance (Nasa) has protested a move by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to award a Ksh 2.4 billion deal with French technology firm OT-Morpho to provide electoral management system for the new presidential elections set for October 26.
In a statement, head of the Raila Odinga campaign Musalia Mudavadi accused IEBC and OT-Morpho of pulling another expensive fraud on Kenyan tax payers even before they can address numerous questions regarding irregularities and illegalities in the August 8 elections. The single sourced pact was inked two days ago, he said.
“The contract signed on September 28 is just about Ksh 1.4 billion less than the cost of similar IT services for the August 8 general elections. The August elections involved thousands of candidates running for six different positions for which OT-Morpho was paid Ksh 3.8 billion,” he said.
Mudavadi added the contract for an election involving only one position and two candidates is not only outrageous but an act of fraud, deliberate theft of public funds and bribery, adding the figure is way above the Ksh 800 million that the IEBC technical committee had recommended.
“Kenyans should be excused if they were to conclude that the offensive amounts are being paid as a bribe to OT-Morpho for a shady job of using technology to tilt elections in favour of Jubilee in the same way it did last month. This is fortified by the fact that Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai and Treasury Secretary Mr Henry Rotich approved the colossal sums,” said the Amani National Congress leader.
“Of course, part of the huge sum may as well find its way to IEBC and senior government officials as commission as happened in the Chickengate scandal. This new contract comes even before the French government, which is a shareholder in OT-Morpho, responds to the issues Nasa raised about the unethical conduct of the firm in Kenya,” he added.
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According to him, until the French absolve themselves, the award further confirms that OT-Morpho is firmly part and parcel of a criminal enterprise that has hijacked the Kenyan electoral system with the sole aim of profiteering and frustrating the democratic ambitions of the people of Kenya.
“Nasa objects firmly to this criminality. We demand that IEBC and OT-Morpho explain to Kenyans how the figure was arrived at. We also demand that the Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai and Treasury Secretary Mr. Henry Rotich tell Kenyans on what basis they approved this fraud,” he said.
Mudavadi charged that IEBC has demonstrated that it lacks good faith and is still hell bent on committing crimes against Kenyans in collusion with OT-Morpho.
“As this contract demonstrates, we cannot expect free, fair, credible and verifiable elections conducted in conformity with the Constitution and the laws of Kenya.”
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