IEBC top officials arrested over Sh1.3b poll kits tender

IEBC CEO James Oswago Photo: Standard

By Cyrus Ombati

Nairobi, Kenya: Four top electoral commission offi cials were Tuesday dramatically arrested and questioned over corruption claims linked to the controversial procurement of equipment that failed during the March 4 General Election.

The four were arrested by detectives from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and are due to be charged in court with corruption.

They are Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chief Executive Officer James Oswago, his deputy Mr Wilson Shollei, the director of finance Mr Edward Karisa and the procurement manager Mr Willy Kamanga. EACC officials said the commission had been conducting an investigation into the electronic voter identification kits, whose failure during the March 4 polls sparked public outrage.

EACC spokesman Yassin Yila said the four were expected in court this morning to face corruption-related charges.

Officials said Mr Oswago was arrested in Naivasha where he was attending a meeting, while the others were picked from their offices.

They were grilled at the EACC offices at Integrity Building in Nairobi, ahead of their arraignment in court today. Officials said the IEBC officials had their fingerprints taken and were to spend the night in police custody.

The arrests came after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko agreed with EACC that the four should be charged with four counts of failing to comply with procurement laws and abuse of office.

Officials said the charges relate to the tender to procure Electronic Voter Identification Devices (Evid) that was awarded to a private company, Face Technologies, at a cost of Sh1.3 billion.

Technical standards

It will be the first time that electoral officials are charged for hitches that marred the polls.

The failure of the electronic system was cited in the petition by Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) presidential candidate Raila Odinga, whose case against the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta was, however, dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Sources said the officials would be charged with breaking procurement regulations by failing to ensure that the devices were inspected and confirmed to have met the required technical standards.

Further, they will be charged with jointly and wilfully failing to comply with Section 47 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, and Regulation 31 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations.

Under this, it is alleged that they failed to ensure that the IEBC tender committee approved changes made to the contract awarded to Face Technologies Ltd by the IEBC for the supply of the Evids. They are also accused of using their offices improperly to confer a benefit on Face Technologies by approving the payment of Sh1.3 billion for the supply of the devices without ascertaining that they were inspected, accepted and met the technical specifications in the contract.

EACC also accuses the officials of using their offices improperly confer a benefit to Face Technologies by approving changes in the contract for the supply of the devices, without approval for contract variation by the IEBC tender committee.

Controversy

The probe was launched following a Supreme Court order on conclusion of the presidential election petition.

The Supreme Court recommended the prosecution of top IEBC officials and vendors of the Evids and the Result Transmission System (RTS) that failed during the polls.

Mr Yila said EACC was still investigating the procurement and management of biometric voter registers.

The procurement of the electronic system was marred by controversy from the beginning, leading to the cancellation of tenders for the BVRs.

In the course of their investigations, EACC officials searched the office and residence of Oswago.

The IEBC boss then moved to the High Court to seek orders blocking the EACC officials from conducting further searches, arguing that he was being singled out in the matter.