Chebukati: IEBC stickers seized from Venezuelans at JKIA are non-strategic

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati now says that the election stickers nabbed from the three Venezuelans at JKIA are “non-strategic” election materials.

On Tuesday, July 26 the IEBC chairman updated Kenyans on the progress of the deployment of technology in the 2022 General Election.

He clarified that the nabbed stickers are not strategic in the polls but identifiers of voting kits for packaging purposes.

“For easy identification of the KIEMS kits, Smartmatic is required to provide stickers to aid in labelling each of the kits for purposes of packaging and dispatch to all polling stations”

“The deployment of the KIEMS kits is currently underway,” he stated.

“It is important to note that the stickers are non-strategic election materials. The stickers were printed based on the details of the gazette notice published on 1st July 2022″

“The stickers contain information on the polling station, polling centre, ward, constituency, and county as well as a unique barcode,” said the commission chair.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Switch TV

He further affirmed that he is confident with Smartmatic, terming it as a trusted election technology provider whose work spans Belgium, Estonia, Los Angeles County in the US, and Zambia.

“The Commission holds regular meetings with Smartmatic to review the project status and ensure delivery of milestones in line with the Elections Operations Plan (EOP). To date, the project’s progress is on track,” said Chebukati.

IEBC says Smartmatic was awarded the contract amid a competitive bidding process in which it was found to have achieved the highest technical and financial score among the five bidders.

“The contract is implemented at a cumulative project cost of KSh3.2 billion. The award of the contract was contested at the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), the High Court, the Constitutional Court, and the Court of Appeal. However, the Commission’s decision was upheld in all the court cases,” Chebukati said in a statement to newsrooms.