Wafula Chebukati, chairperson of the IEBC, has clarified that the stickers discovered in the possession of three Venezuelan contractors last week were for the identification of Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits.
Chebukati stated in a two-page press statement dated Monday, July 25, that the three Venezuelan nationals arrested at the JKIA on July 21 were in the country legally and worked for Smartmatic, a company contracted by IEBC to assist in technology roll-out.
He stated that Smartmatic, a company based in London, United Kingdom, won the Sh3.2 billion technology tender procedurally.
“It should be noted that the stickers are non-strategic election materials.” The stickers were created using the information from the gazette notice published on July 1, 2022. “The information therein is available to the public,” Chebukati said in response to the DCI’s claim that foreigners had gained access to election-related stickers.
According to the IEBC chairperson, the stickers include information on polling stations, polling centers, wards, constituencies, and counties, as well as unique barcodes.
He also stated that the process of distributing KIEMS kits to various polling stations across the country has begun.
“The KIEMS kits are being deployed to 46,229 polling stations, down from 46,233 polling stations previously.” This occurred after seven polling stations in the Kimilili Constituency were consolidated into three. The changes for gazettement have been approved by the Commission. “It is important to note that each County Assembly Ward will have six backup KIEMS kits,” Chebukati said.
He also stated that the kits will include software for Electronic Voter Identification and Results Transmission System, SIM cards from network operators, and SD cards containing registered voters’ biographic and biometric data for each polling station.
