Controversy rocks multi-million IEBC tech tender

The tender for the supply and delivery of the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) network was divided into two lots.

The main telecommunication firms are battling for the first lot that deals with transmission of results in areas with 3G and 4G networks.

The second lot concerns satellite services that will upload the results electronically in areas with no phone network.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, however, has reportedly not awarded the satellite tender to the lowest bidder. This decision could expose the commission to new legal battles.

The Star made repeated attempts to contact the IEBC for comment by email, SMS and phone but no response was forthcoming.

The Wafula Chebukati-led IEBC has announced they will employ satellite technology to transmit results in about 1,111 polling centres without network coverage.

In May, the satellite tender was awarded to Osta Tech Limited, working in conjunction with IEC Telecoms, for Sh202 million.

However, when the tender was first advertised and before  it was cancelled to introduce addenda, Osta Tech and IEC had quoted Sh327.5 million. 

The variance between their first and second bids was Sh125 million.

The other two bidders were Airtel, which quoted Sh264 million, and Acacia Satlink, which quoted Sh182 million. It is the regional representative of the giant satellite company Thuraya.

In the first bid, Airtel asked for Sh266 million and only came down by Sh2 million in the re-advertised tender.

Acacia Satlink first quoted Sh196 million and came down by Sh14 million.

Some bidders have protested that their bids were rejected on trivialities and not on their technical capacity to do the job or the pricing. 

Thuraya said it offered the technically best solution and it was also going to send 12 experts to ensure the satellite upload ran smoothly during the transmission of election results.

Acacia Satlink received their IEBC regret letter dated May 9 on June 24, the day after the 14-day window for appeal closed.

“This was a trick to dodge the appeal,” one bidder said.

The Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2015 allows dissatisfied bidders to move to the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board for dispute resolution within 14 days.

The matter can then proceed to the High Court if the parties are dissatisfied.

In Lot One, the Kenyan telcos bid to be the carrier of electronic election results from the polling stations to the national tallying centre.

Safaricom asked for Sh377 million, Telkom asked for Sh205 million while Airtel asked for Sh61.5 million. 

It is unclear whether this tender has also been awarded.

In 2017, the bulk of the work was given to Safaricom because of its large network penetration. 

Safaricom said that the transmission failures with results occurred in areas where they were not contracted to handle election results.

But the contract strained Safaricom's relationship with the  National Super Alliance, which accused the firm of colluding with the IEBC to bungle the 2017 polls.

(Edited by V. Graham)

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