Way cleared for IEBC to single-source poll material

Kenya is headed for yet another direct procurement of electoral materials worth billions of shillings following a clash of laws which has thrown the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) into a dilemma.

The new electoral laws compel the IEBC to procure all electoral equipment including polling kits by December 8, eight months to the 2017 General Election.

The National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) has directed the IEBC to stick to the timelines set out in the Electoral Laws (Amendment) Act, effectively making it practically impossible for competitive bidding as required by the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.

Samuel Chepkonga, who chairs the JLAC, said the committee had given IEBC the green-light to proceed expeditiously to issue tenders for procurement of the kits as per the set timelines.

The IEBC says the earliest the election equipment and technology will be in the country is the end of February or early March if it sticks to the procurement law which requires open competitive tendering.

The procurement law requires international open tenders to be prepared for 21 days, floated for 30 days, 30 days set aside for evaluation and 14 days for award, meaning that the December 8 deadline will be overshot.

“With direct procurement, it means IEBC will have to pick from its pre-qualified list of suppliers. But the equipment are not off-the shelves and technical specifications must be designed by IEBC,” Mr Chepkonga said.

The IEBC in mid-August published an international tender for the supply of ballot papers and poll registers worth about Sh3.9 billion.

It is yet to issue big-ticket tenders such as the procurement of electronic voter identification gadgets and results transmission kits.

Late buying of the polls kits and the resulting failure during the March 2013 poll has been at the centre of the IEBC’s credibility problems, culminating in the impending overthrow of the entire team of commissioners and past sacking and prosecution of senior managers for corruption. 

The use of direct procurement could result in the country being thrown back to the dilemma that faced the commission ahead of the 2013 General Election where the State was forced to enter into a government-to-government procurement arrangement with Canada.