The IEBC has resolved to directly procure elections equipment from French firm
Safran Identity & Security (previously Morpho).
The commission's announcement on Friday followed the cancellation of a tender previously awarded to French firm Gemalto SA.
The tender for procuring Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) was revoked following a court order.
In a letter to Gemalto, IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba said one of the commission's considerations was that the scope of the technology requirements had changed after the mass voter registration.
“Therefore, the commission considered that there would be no value for money to retain the voter registration in KIEMS at present,” he said.
Also read:
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said that after cancellation, the only technically evaluated bidder quoted a price of Sh5.2 billion against the available budget of Sh3.8 billion.
Taking
into account the remaining processes of tender procurement, manufacture, delivery, installation and commissioning, Chebukati said it would have been impossible to
meet operational and legal timelines.
"Since we are working against legal and operational timelines, the commission has resolved to directly engage Safran, which has undertaken
to deliver the technology within the statutory timelines," he said.
Chebukati added that the commission had very little time left
to comply with the legal timelines in relation to deployment of ICTs in elections.
"In addition, adequate time is required for purposes of configuration, testing, training and deployment for purposes of the voter verification exercise required by May 10," he said.
The electoral agency boss noted that more than
19 million voters have been registered so far using a stand-alone system provided by Safran.
"The commission has a maintenance contract for the BVR system with Safran for the next three years.
"During the register's preparation, Safran will support us to ensure we have a credible and reliable biometric voters register for the election," he said.
He added that with Safran, there were guarantees of compatibility, timely delivery and accountability in the deployment of the new system
Chebukati said serious complications arose from the 2013 general election as the systems used were provided by different vendors.
"We have to learn from the mistakes of that election and build on strengths. It is for these reasons that the commission has decided to engage Safran to ensure that statutory timelines are met. We have sufficient project management capacity and the systems are fully compatible and integrated for the success of the elections," said the chairman.
He said
any other engagements in any way will jeopardise preparations for the elections.
Read: