Some of the contracts that delivered 'chicken'

Kenya: United Kingdom’s investigators unearthed contracts between Kenyan officials and the printing firm that offered avenues for bribes.

Contract 1: Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-election

On June 1, 2009, Smith & Ouzman’s Sales and Marketing Manager Nicholas Smith wrote to the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya (IIEC) chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan about printing voter registration forms, voter ID cards and ballot papers for the urgent Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-elections.

The price quoted was £32,526. There were email discussions between Nicholas Smith and the agent, Trevy Oyombra, about payment of £750 commission to the latter and the necessity to pay IIEC Senior Procurement Officer Kenneth Karani and other officials. Trevy later asked his commission to be increased to £1,000. It is described on the spreadsheet as 4.6 per cent of the total contract price of £32,526.

The remainder of that contract price is divided up between funds from the contract for S&O: £21,950 and a sum of £10,576 for “comm”.

“Comm”, the prosecution suggested, was short for “commission”.

 

Contract 2: 2009-2010 Voter ID forms

Smith & Ouzman secured a contract with IIEC to produce 18 million voter registration cards for £278,838.

On November 11, 2009, Nicholas Smith sent a commercial proposal to one of the IIEC officials, Davis Chirchir.

On December 3, 2009, Ahmed Hassan at the IIEC emailed Nicholas Smith with the formal advertisement and inviting S&O to tender for the contract.

The total amount allegedly demanded in bribes for this contract was Sh10 million. The contract was worth £79,000.

 

Contract 3: South Mugirango and Matuga parliamentary and civic by-election ballot papers

This was a contract to supply ballot papers for various by-elections. S&O was initially under pressure to quote low prices, which would have left them without enough profit to enable them to pay bribes.

Trevy held various meetings with Oswago (Chief Electoral Officer), which resulted in the prices being increased after the contract had been awarded to S&O, which enabled S&O to pay bribes to Oswago and his colleagues.

 

Contract 4: Referendum ballot papers

This was a substantial contract to supply approximately 14.6 million ballot papers and associated forms for a referendum.

The items were dispatched in July 2010. The total contract value was £431,161.15. Trevy’s fee for this contract was £11,872.05.

The prosecution case is that bribes intended for officials at the IIEC and the Kenyan Bureau of Standards totalled £108,203.82, which was reduced to £105,193.82 to take into account “hotel” costs paid by S&O during a three to four-day visit of IIEC officials to S&O’s factory on July 14, 2010.

Contract 5: OMR correction and nomination forms

This began as a contract to supply 1.5 million OMR correction forms and 1,000 nomination forms.

In the end, S&O supplied 5 million OMR correction forms (plus an extra 23,000 OMR forms free of charge) and 1,000 nomination forms.

The contract was worth £206,230. Trevy’s fee was £4,600. The commission on the Summary of Orders spreadsheet was £24,250.

The prosecution case is that this sum was intended for bribing public officials.

Contract 6: Ultra-violet lights and other parliamentary and civic ballot papers

S&O supplied IIEC with 34,000 ultra-violet detection lights, which are referred to in the statement of account produced for the IIEC.

They appear to have been delivered in July 2010. The total value of this contract was £88,400. The spreadsheet of payments shows Trevy’s fee was £1,530 and the ‘commission’ payment, which the prosecution alleges was for the payment of bribes, was £27,200.

Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) contracts

Three contracts were awarded to S&O by Knec. The amount paid to S&O by Knec in relation to these contracts by November 2010 was £282,339. Trevy Oyombra was instructed by Nicholas Smith to pay four of the Knec officials $1,000 each.

In addition, Knec Executive Secretary Paul Wasanga was paid £5,000 in cash when he visited S&O’s premises in Eastbourne in July 2010.