IEBC boss, top officials held by antigraft agency

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chief executive officer Mr James Oswago. Mr Oswago was Tuesday arrested by anti-corruption detectives following months of investigations into procurement of electronic gadgets that failed during the March 4 General election. Photo/File


 By FRED MUKINDA
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Electoral commission’s boss James Oswago was Tuesday arrested by anti-corruption detectives following months of investigations into procurement of electronic gadgets that failed during the March 4 General election.

His deputy in charge of Support Services at Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wilson Shollei was also arrested and they were held at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters.

The two were arrested in Naivasha and escorted by the anti-graft detectives to Integrity Centre, the Commission’s headquarters in Nairobi.

The Commission’s finance director Edward Kenga Karisa and procurement manager Willy Kamanga were arrested in the city and held together with their bosses.
Anti-graft officials told the Nation that the four would be booked at one of police stations in the city, awaiting charges in court Wednesday.

At Integrity Centre, the four were “processed,” meaning they had their finger prints taken and formally informed that they were under arrest and the offences facing them disclosed.

PROCUREMENT LAWS
EACC has been investigating the procurement of Sh1.3 billion electronic gadgets which failed during the election, forcing the returning officers across the country to relay the poll results manually.
The Sunday Nation reported that the officials would be charged with four counts relating to failure to comply with procurement laws and abuse of office, and cited a draft charge sheet.

(Read: Elections bosses face Sh1.3bn tender charges)
The arrests come after Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko gave the green-light to prosecute them after studying investigation files that were compiled against them.

The charges relate to the tender to procure the Electronic Voter Identification Devices (Evid) which was awarded to a private company, Face Technologies at a cost of Sh1.3 billion.

Earlier into the investigations, the anti-graft team conducted searches at IEBC offices as well as Mr Oswago’s home.

Supreme Court recommended the prosecution of IEBC officials when it ruled in the petition filed by Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), challenging the election of President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

The highest Court also recommended prosecution of the suppliers of the Evids and the Result Transmission System (RTS) which failed to function during the poll leading to myriad challenges in the tallying of votes.

In its full ruling, the six judges upheld Mr Kenyatta’s election and further said there were squabbles among top IEBC chiefs over the procurement leading to the failure of the gadgets.

“We recommend that this matter be entrusted to the relevant State agency for further investigation and possible prosecution of suspects,” the six judges led by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, the Supreme Court President, said.

Mr Odinga and the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) which also challenged the presidential results argued that the glitches created room for manipulation of results between polling stations and the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.

According to the documents, Mr Oswago and Mr Shollei face the first count of willfully failing to comply with Section 47 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and Regulation 31 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations by failing to ensure that changes made to the contract awarded to Face technologies ltd by the IEBC for the supply of the Evids was approved by the IEBC tender committee.

ABUSE OF OFFICE
In the second count, the duo is charged with using their offices improperly to confer a benefit on Face Technologies Ltd by approving the payment of the Sh1.3 billion for the supply of the devices without ascertaining that they were inspected, accepted and met the technical specifications in the contract.
In the third count, Mr Oswago, Mr Shollei, Mr Karisa and Mr Kamanga are expected to answer to breaking procurement regulations by failing to ensure that the devices were inspected and confirmed as having met the required technical standards.

In the final count, Mr Oswago and Mr Shollei are charged with using their offices improperly to confer a benefit to Face Technologies Ltd by approving changes in the contract for the supply of the devices without the required approval for contract variation by the IEBC tender committee.

Sources indicated that EACC had also forwarded to the DPP another file relating to the tender for the supply of 28,000 solar lanterns at a cost of Sh105 million with a recommendation for the prosecution of the firm which was awarded the tender, Solar Mark for “bid rigging.”

The Supreme Court judges in their judgment concluded that the electronic system procurement was marked by competing interests some involving impropriety or even criminality.

“Different reasons explain this failure but, by the depositions of Dismus Ong’ondi, the failure mainly arose from the misunderstandings and squabbles among IEBC members during the procurement process,” said the judges.

The court said enough evidence was produced to show that EVID and RTS stalled and crashed.
Mr Ong’ondi, Head of IT at the electoral agency, had cautioned the electoral commission against buying the EVIDs, saying they required more time and a parallel technology to function optimally.
In an internal memo to Mr Shollei and copied to Mr Oswago, Mr Ong’ondi said the kits tender should not be awarded because of the risk that the gadgets would malfunction.

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGE
Mr Oswago however contended that the devices failed because of an operational challenge.
The poll books were meant to identify a voter before one could cast a ballot. They were also to verify that one was a registered voter and account for all those who voted, eliminating the risk of multiple voting, ghost voters and ballot stuffing.

Mr Oswago said the commission abandoned the transmission software developed by Next Technologies during the referendum and by elections to develop its own for the General Election at a cost of Sh40 million. That would put the blame on the transmission system failure at the door of IEBC’s IT department which is headed by Mr Ong’ondi.

The failed software was developed in partnership with International Foundation for electoral System (IFES), which also bought the servers. The mobile phones were supplied by Safaricom.
The procurement of electronic systems was marked by controversy from the beginning resulting to the cancellation of the tenders for the Biometric Voter Register (BVR).

Former President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Odinga who was Prime Minister at the time intervened and the kits were eventually delivered through a Canadian government loan of Sh6 billion.

In July this year, detectives questioned IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, Mr Oswago, Mr Shollei and the commission’s deputy Secretary in charge of electoral operations Beatrice Sungura-Nyabuto over the mismanagement of the March 4 elections.

Sources close to the investigation by the anti-corruption commission said the chairman, chief executive and his two deputies had implicated one another in the failure of the electronic tallying and transmission after the elections.