IEBC kicks off tendering process for election technology amid intense political scrutiny
National
By
Josphat Thiongó and David Odongo
| Aug 12, 2026
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has officially opened the tendering process for the multi-billion-shilling election technology and materials, exactly one year ahead of the decisive August 10, 2027 polls.
The critical procurement cycle comes under a cloud of intense political scrutiny, as opposition leaders have in the recent past criticized the commission’s adherence to the electoral timelines and the process’ transparency. Critics have argued that delayed procurement risks system failures and a rushed rollout of the voter identification and results transmission systems.
"IEBC seems to be keeping whatever they are doing very close to themselves, yet the Constitution says the elections must be transparent and verifiable. That can not be done if the Commission is doing things in secret," recently said Democratic Party leader Justin Muturi.
But in a move seemingly aimed at delivering a flawless and verifiable process, the electoral agency yesterday issued two major international tenders seeking suppliers for an Integrated Elections Management System (IEMS), hardware and accessories, ballot papers, tactile folders, the Register of Voters and statutory election result declaration forms.
Under the first tender, IEBC is seeking a contractor to supply, deliver, install, test, commission, support and maintain the Integrated Elections Management System and associated hardware and accessories. The successful bidder will be expected to provide the infrastructure required by the commission as it prepares for the management of the electoral process.
The tender has been opened to qualified local and international firms through an open competitive international procurement process. Interested bidders have been given access to the tender documents at no cost through the IEBC website and the Public Procurement Information Portal. Further, the commission has set a Sh30 million tender security requirement, which must be issued by a reputable financial institution or insurance company, or be in the form of a banker’s cheque payable to IEBC.
Key among the requirements is that the security must remain valid for 270 days after the bid submission deadline. A pre-bid conference for the IEMS tender will also be held online on August 18 at 10 am East African Time, with interested bidders required to submit their email addresses to the commission’s procurement office to receive the link.
The commission noted that bids must be physically delivered to the IEBC Tender Box at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi by September 1 at 10 am. The commission emphasised that electronic tenders will not be accepted.
The second tender by IEBC is for the for the supply and delivery of ballot papers, tactile folders, the Register of Voters and statutory election result declaration forms. The materials will be supplied on an “as and when required” basis for three years, covering the 2027 election cycle and other electoral requirements during the contract period.
It carries a Sh40 million security requirement, with the security also required to remain valid for 270 days after the bid submission deadline. The electoral agency is now expected to hold a pre-bid conference for the ballot materials tender on August 17 at 10 am East African Time.
According to the Erastus Ethekon-led team, the deadline for submitting bids is by September 1 at 12 p.m. Bidders are also required to physically submit their bids.
“The tender documents must be chronologically serialized, while bids are required to be submitted in plain, sealed envelopes bearing the relevant tender reference number and description,” adds the Commission.
But despite the procurement process being a declaration of intent on the part of IEBC, its commencement has reawakened the ghosts of the 2017 and 2022 election malfunctions when parts of the country experienced biometric identification failures during the general election, causing long queues, frustration, and temporary disenfranchisement for voters unable to pass fingerprint verification.
Technology providers Smartmatic also faced intense scrutiny and political pushback over transparency, system configurations, and links to disputed election tallies with post-election audit reports highlighting missing inventory, revealing that thousands of procured KIEMS kits could not be fully accounted for by the electoral commission, raising security concerns regarding data privacy and election integrity.
In January this year, a shocking accusation from a former Venezuelan intelligence chief cast a dark shadow over the company that provided the technological support for Kenya’s last two general elections, raising questions about the integrity of Kenya’s electoral process.
In a damning letter from a US federal prison, Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, once Venezuela’s top military spy, labelled President Nicolás Maduro’s government a “narco-terrorist organisation.”
Within his explosive claims was an allegation that the electronic voting systems of Smartmatic International, the same company that supplied the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kits in 2022 and 2017, were “supervised or influenced by the Venezuelan government for electoral manipulation.”
For Kenyans, the revelation led to a question asked over time...who truly controls the technology upon which our democracy relies?
Smartmatic’s journey into Kenya’s electoral landscape has been embroiled in opacity and legal battles. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) awarded Smartmatic a Sh 3.2 billion contract in 2021 to supply 14,100 new KIEMS kits and, critically, the software to run on all kits, including 41,000 legacy devices from 2017.
From the outset, the deal was mired in mystery. An in-depth analysis published by The Elephant in August 2022 revealed Smartmatic repeatedly refused to disclose its full ownership structure, ultimate beneficial owners, or its contract with IEBC, citing confidentiality. They noted that the parent company, SGO Corporation Limited, appeared to have no independent directors, raising corporate governance red flags.
That cloud darkened just weeks before the August 2022 poll when three Venezuelan nationals, employees of a Smartmatic subsidiary in Panam, were arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with election materials, including stickers for KIEMS kits. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) linked them to a local firm, Seamless Limited. While IEBC dismissed the incident as a misunderstanding over “non-strategic” materials, Smartmatic clammed up, refusing to comment on its relationship with Seamless, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
The most telling Kenyan chapter in the Smartmatic saga occurred after the 2022 presidential election. Following Raila Odinga’s constitutional petition challenging William Ruto’s win, the Supreme Court ordered the IEBC to grant agents access to its servers for scrutiny.
Smartmatic’s response was a defiant letter to the IEBC, dated August 31, 2022. The company flatly refused to provide “full access” to its servers, despite the Supreme Court’s order, claiming it would infringe on its “intellectual property rights.”
“We would like to clarify that such images contain software owned and copyrighted by Smartmatic and are thus IP protected,” the statement read. In essence, a private contractor asserted that its proprietary interests superseded the Kenyan judiciary’s mandate to audit a presidential election, a mockery to Kenya’s sovereignty.
Further, Hugo Carvajal’s claims from prison alleged that under Maduro’s regime, Smartmatic’s systems were not just tools for voting but instruments of state-managed disinformation and electoral manipulation, woven into what he called a “narco-terrorist” network involving Hezbollah, and Cuban intelligence.
While Smartmatic has consistently denied any wrongdoing, calling such claims “false and defamatory,” the source of the allegation was significant. Carvajal is not a small player; he was the former director of Venezuela’s Military Counterintelligence Directorate (DGCIM), a regime insider now offering to cooperate with US authorities. His testimony added weight to long-standing international concerns about the credibility of elections where Smartmatic technology was used.
The timing coincided with intensified US pressure on Caracas. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently stated Maduro has “repeatedly broken commitments” on free elections, with the US launching naval strikes against Venezuelan-linked drug trafficking networks.
For Kenyan citizens, politicians, and electoral observers, the Venezuelan revelation was a wake-up call.
Since the development, The Standard sent several questions to the IEBC chair and spokesperson about Smartmatic, seeking to know if the IEBC, in its procurement process, conducted thorough background checks on Smartmatic’s alleged links to contested elections and geopolitical controversies in Venezuela and the Philippines.
Despite Smartmatic’s claim that it “does not own or copy any personal data about voters in Kenya,” its role in software supply and technical support makes handling voter data unavoidable. Was Kenyan biometric voter information ever accessible to or stored by a company now accused of being a tool of a foreign authoritarian regime?
Smartmatic’s defiance of the Supreme Court’s server order also set a dangerous precedent in which a foreign vendor has power over the transparency of a Kenyan election.
Electoral law experts and civil society groups have since demanded immediate action.
“This is not just about Venezuela; it’s about Kenya,” said Zedekiah Adika, an advocate and governance expert.
“We have a right to know if the system that declared our presidents was supplied, programmed, or potentially influenced by a company accused of facilitating electoral fraud for a narcotics-funded dictatorship. Parliament must immediately summon the IEBC, Smartmatic representatives, and the investigative bodies to a public inquiry. We need a full forensic audit of the 2022 and 2017 systems.”