The High Court has quashed recommendations by the Public Accounts Committee that purported to nullify contracts between French firm Idemia and IEBC for the supply of electronic kits used in the last General Election.
Judge John Mativo said a reading of the recommendations by PAC could not pass the legality test because only a court of competent jurisdiction could make such a determination after hearing the dispute on merit.
He said the committee erred and exercised jurisdiction it did not possess when it recommended cancellation of the contracts.
In 2016, IEBC invited a one-off supplier for the hardware component of the Kenya Integrated Electoral Management Systems (KIEMS). It requested submissions of bids.
Idemia successfully bid for the tender and subsequently signed a contract with IEBC. It supplied the kits used in the August 8 General Election and September 26, 2017, repeat presidential election.
Last February, Idemia was invited by the PAC to respond to issues relating to supply, delivery, installation and testing of the kits and ownership of the company.
Subsequent to the meetings, Parliament in a report recommended that the IEBC takes immediate legal action to recover all money unlawfully paid under the contracts with the French firm as they contravened of the Companies Act.
But Mativo on Thursday ruled the decision to retrospectively invoke provisions of the Companies Act and public procurement law, which were not in force at the time the contracts were entered into, was not only illegal but also irrational.
He said Parliament and PAC illegally arrogated to themselves judicial functions they did not possess when they purported to direct recovery of money paid pursuant to a valid contract.
Mativo said it was sufficient for PAC to recommend investigations but not to suggest or prescribe penalties.
Edited by Henry Makori
