State has no contract with OT-Morpho, won't affect Huduma Namba - CS Mucheru

The government has no contract with Idemia firm that Parliament wants to be blacklisted, ICT CS Joe Mucheru has said.

The ongoing nationwide Huduma Namba registration exercise was thrown into jeopardy after MPs voted to block the French firm that is providing the infrastructure from doing business in the country.

The MPs want Idemia, which was awarded the Sh6 billion tender, blocked for at least 10 years, citing a violation of the Companies Act and interference in the last two general elections.

"The ongoing Huduma Namba registration process will not be disrupted by the recent parliamentary recommendation seeking to debar Idemia from operating in Kenya," Mucheru said.

In a statement on Thursday, Mucheru said NIIMS features a robust architecture and was integrated by local software engineers.

"The core registration software and associated infrastructure was engineered and integrated by local engineers," he said.

He said the 35,000 MorphoTablet two data capture kits were the only hardware component supplied by Idemia.

"The kits were acquired on an outright purchase basis, and as such there’s no existing contract beyond this. Therefore, the directions by the National Assembly do not affect Huduma Namba in any way," he said.

MPs amended the report of the Public Accounts Committee on the audited accounts of the IEBC and voted to have the firm held accountable for irregular payments it received in the 2017 General Election.