Tender intrigues have rocked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission again, signalling likely delayed procurement of critical election management technology.
The procurement of Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (Kiems) kits hit a snag after the first tender was quashed because it lacked 40 per cent local content/components.
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board suspended the ongoing procurement process, ordering the IEBC to withdraw the tender from consideration.
This followed a petition by a bidder trading as Smartmatic International Holding, which was filed under a certificate of urgency on September 14.
Smartmatic has since been granted orders to the effect that the IEBC withdraws the entire tender document as issued on September 22.
IEBC deputy CEO Obadiah Keitany informed the bidders of the suspension in a September 27 notice.
“In compliance with the orders by the PPARB, the commission hereby advises all bidders that the above procurement proceedings are hereby suspended until further notice,” the memo reads.
IEBC was just starting the procurement afresh following orders granted to Risk Africa Innovatis Ltd in its case challenging lack of local content.
The commission was cited for failing to include the preference margins in the tender documents, dealing a major blow to the polls agency in its preparations for 2022.
In the face of the current order, the supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, support and maintenance of the Kiems kits hangs in the balance.
Kenyans could be facing events like those of the pre-2017 poll when the polls agency was forced to single-source OT Morpho as the supplier of the voter identification and the results transmission system.
There are concerns the commission may thus not be adequately prepared for August 9, 2022, General Election, which is 10 months away.
The commission intends to buy 10,000 voter identification tablets to upgrade its ageing database.
The Elections Observer Group (ELOG) earlier pointed out such rulings constrain the IEBC timelines for poll preparations.
“This is where you track how much time would be available for the commission to prepare since the process doesn’t end with the completion of the procurement process,” Elog national coordinator Mule Musau said.
Mule warned that time could be lost during deployment, testing, training users and engaging the stakeholders in understanding the equipment.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said the commission had no option but to comply with the orders and awaits the determination by High Court on October 22.
He said the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015, provides options a procuring entity may use when certain conditions are met.
"The commission will explore those options when necessary. For now, the commission will await a determination of the case," Chebukati said.
The tender is projected to cost Sh4.5 billion.
National Assembly Public Accounts Committee chairman Opiyo Wandayi said, however, the commission should be given more time as a way of correcting past wrongs in such tenders.
“The commission was just recently constituted. Let’s give them time to put their house in order. It is important that they get it right,” the Ugunja MP said.
In the 2017 case, the Raila Odinga-led National Super Alliance petitioned the polls agency over the choice of OT Morpho, formerly Idemia.
The commission at the time insisted on the French supplier, saying it had run out of time to buy a new system for the fresh presidential election, which the Nasa side boycotted.
Idemia was awarded a five-year contract of Sh6.8 billion. The procurement resulted in a fierce fight in which Chebukati kicked out CEO Ezra Chiloba.
At the height of the row, the IEBC told the Nasa brigade that the Elections Act requires that any polls technology be tested, verified and deployed at least 60 days prior to election day.
He said it will require at least six months to implement a new election system—procurement, supply, commission, implementation, testing, training and support.
The polls agency even went ahead to state that it had invested heavily in the acquisition of the current Kiems and the integrated technology can still be used for the subsequent general election.
It said that spending money on a similar system for the fresh presidential election was bound to not only raise audit queries but also waste public funds.
The commission sourced 45,000 Kiems kits from OT Morpho which it says were implemented, tested and worked efficiently.
However, there were widespread complaints about the system’s failure—largely in the transmission of results. That was among the reasons the Supreme Court annulled the 2017 presidential poll. It ordered a rerun.
The IEBC projects there would be 53,000 polling stations in 2022, up from the 40,883 used in 2017.
In this regard, the commission says it needs 55,000 tablets, the excess to provide for backup when a need arises.
Tender documents show the IEBC is keen on building a foolproof system with a backend capacity to process information concurrently from the 53,000 tablets.
“The system shall be able to display transmitted results from approximately 53,000 polling stations,” the tender documents for the first tender read.
(Edited by V. Graham)
