Under the three-year contract that was signed on Monday, Posta will distribute ballot boxes, ballot papers and indelible ink from JKIA to Kenya’s more than 45,000 polling stations.
Posta will also disseminate voter education materials through its outlets and handle parcels in Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) offices.
IEBC settled on Posta due to its countrywide network of more than 600 outlets.
The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) will earn Sh700 million for distribution of election materials for the August 9 General Election.
Under the three-year contract that was signed on Monday, Posta will distribute ballot boxes, ballot papers and indelible ink from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Kenya’s more than 45,000 polling stations.
Posta will also disseminate voter education materials through its outlets and handle parcels in Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) offices.
“The contract that we have signed today to deliver poll materials in the August 9 General Election will run for a period of three years,” IEBC chief executive Murjan Hussein Murjan told the Business Daily on Monday.
Wining team
“We have settled on Posta based on the remarkable track record they demonstrated in the 2017 General Election. When you have a winning team, you don’t dump it, you continue working with it,” he said.
IEBC settled on Posta due to its countrywide network of more than 600 outlets.
“I’m happy that the deal has been signed early. This gives us enough time to prepare unlike last time when we started the exercise two months in to the polls,” said PCK postmaster general Daniel Kagwe.
Posta earned Sh1.1 billion for logistical services offered to IEBC in both the August 8, 2017 polls and the October 26, and 2017 repeat presidential poll.
In the coming elections, Greek firm Inform P Lykos (Hellas) S.A. beat 11 other suppliers to win a three-year open international tender for the supply of ballot boxes during the upcoming poll.
Mr Kenyatta will not be on the ballot due to a constitutional term limit of two five-year terms.
But he has thrown his weight behind his former foe, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who formally announced his fifth presidential bid in December.
Unlike his predecessor Mwai Kibaki, Mr Kenyatta has announced an aggressive campaign for Mr Odinga against his Deputy William Ruto, who has been vocal about his own presidential ambitions.
In Mr Odinga’s last three runs for office in 2007, 2013 and 2017, he led his supporters to protest the outcomes in the streets or challenge them in court, saying his victories were stolen. But he called a truce with Mr Kenyatta in early 2018, effectively sidelining Deputy President Ruto.
Mr Ruto is expected to run on the ticket of a new party called United Democratic Alliance (UDA) after quitting the ruling Jubilee Party.
Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto have each intensified campaigns, especially in central Kenya where Mr Kenyatta’s ethnic Kikuyu votes are up for grabs.
