IEBC to rush polls kit or be late by 10 days

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) may be forced into direct procurement of election materials worth billions of shillings to meet the tight timelines as set out in the law.

Should procurement timelines be adhered to, the IEBC will overshoot the deadline by 10 days.

According to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, any Kenyan could go to court to stop the process on the grounds of violating the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, which takes precedent over the new Elections (Amendment) Act, with the former providing for open tendering.

Although the committee chairman, Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga, said the IEBC would be entering uncharted waters with the attendant dangers of having the electoral process scuttled, the procurement law reportedly provides for a restricted tender by the polls body, but only in exceptional circumstances such as “unforeseen outcomes”.

However, the prospect of a direct tender for biometric voter registration (BVR) kits, with the history of bungled procurement by the IEBC, could cast doubt on the August 2017 elections, watering down efforts made to improve its credibility, which include the sending home of the current team in a sweetheart deal.

PITFALLS AHEAD

The new elections law is the product of a negotiated agreement between the ruling Jubilee and opposition Cord alliances through a joint parliamentary team, which the Justice committee has instructed the IEBC to follow to the letter despite the pitfalls ahead.

It was rushed through Parliament to meet elections deadline and was not synchronised with the procurement law to remove the inconsistencies.

“Our (Justice) committee tried to introduce amendments that would synchronise the two laws but MPs declined debate and wanted the law passed as negotiated by the joint parliamentary select committee without changes,” said Mr Chepkonga.

According to him, another conflict with the procurement law arises in the provision by the joint team that a multi-agency tender committee undertake the IEBC’s procurement, as opposed to an internal tender committee.

The lawmaker said the rush to pass the new electoral law meant that some of the loopholes such as the provision that the Public Procurement Act would take precedence over any other law were not amended to be in sync with the procurement law.

The joint parliamentary team was co-chaired by Senators James Orengo (Siaya) and Kiraitu Murungi (Meru).

In 2013, the IEBC bungled the procurement of BVR and electoral voter identification devices (Evid), leading to a government-to-government tender that resulted in a Sh6 billion loss.

The IEBC has tight deadlines as the elections requires electoral materials for the next polls — including BVR kits — to be in the country eight months before the elections. For the electoral body to stick to the timelines, which were approved by both Houses of Parliament, all electoral gadgets have to be ready for deployment by December 8 — a little more than a month away.

Cord has stalled the procurement of BVR kits by the current nine-member poll body led by chairman Issack Hassan and the process is expected to kick off once the new, leaner team of seven commissioners is appointed.

PICK NEW COMMISSIONERS

Following Wednesday’s swearing-in, Chief Justice David Maraga embarked on the assignment of swearing-in members of the selection panel that will pick new commissioners.

Mr Chepkonga’s committee, whose two Bills on electoral reforms were pushed to the periphery in favour of the negotiated law, also faulted the joint team for increasing the number of polling stations from 44,000 to 57,331 — which will eventually push the cost of conducting the elections to Sh10.7 billion, IEBC Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba said in a recent interview.

Apart from increasing the number of polling centres by capping the number of polling stations to 500 up from 700 that had been proposed by the Justice committee, there are also other challenges such as lack of adequate venues in densely populated areas such as Kibera.

He said places like Kibera pose a logistical challenge since there may not be many classrooms or schools, usually converted to polling centers during elections, owing to the reduced capping of the number of required voters per station.

In the face of the tighter deadlines, the IEBC also wants political parties to nominate their candidates for respective elective seats between May 26 and June 9 — 60 days to the elections date.

Also the new Elections (Amendment) Act and the Elections Offences Act, having failed to address the issue of university degrees requirement for MPs and members of County Assemblies (MCAs), the IEBC would have to revert to the existing law, requiring those vying for the two positions in the next elections, to have post-secondary school training to be eligible.

One of the reasons for the exit of the current electoral team was the bungling of procurement of electoral materials, which failed in the last elections, with alleged infighting by the IEBC tender team scuttling the procurement process, opening the way for the Government to Government tender with a Canadian, which was more costly.