2022 General Election on the verge of being postponed just as UHURU and RAILA’s allies want as MPs complicate things for CHEBUKATI

 

Saturday, August 14, 2021 – The debate on postponing the 2022 General Election has taken a new twist, even as the country edges closer to the next year’s polls.

This is after MPs threatened to decline the Ksh40 billion polls budget, amendments to the electoral laws as well as the request by the commission to procure new technologies to manage the elections, a move that may lead to the postponement of the 2022 General Election.

IEBC’s quest for the new systems (servers) was quashed by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), throwing the Wafula Chebukati-led commission into confusion as of Tuesday, August 9th, 2022 fast approaches.

The procurement board barred the commission from awarding a tender for the supply of the new Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System (Kiems), forcing Chebukati to go back to the drawing board to formulate a way out.

“Under Section 168 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015, the proceedings are hereby suspended and no contract shall be signed between the procurer and the tenderer awarded the contract unless the appeal has been finalised,” PPRAB ordered while rejecting IEBC’s request. 

IEBC wanted the controversial servers developed in 2012 by French firm Idemia, previously known as OT-Morpho, replaced by the new Kiems. 

It argued that Kenya has over depended on the OT-Mopho servers since digital technology was inculcated into Kenya’s electoral process. 

In the contested 2017 election, the 2012 serves were reported to have failed. This formed a key basis in the arguments presented at the Supreme Court leading to the nullification of the presidential elections.

A clamour to postpone the election, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga’s man and Central Organisation Trade Unions (COTU, Secretary-General Francis Atwoli, has attracted divided opinions from opposing political factions, led by Deputy President William Ruto’s Tanga Tanga faction.

However, Atwoli’s call for postponement of elections was not directly related to the IEBC preparedness but on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), currently awaiting a Court of Appeal ruling.

Former Nominated Senator Paul Njoroge also petitioned IEBC to push the 2022 election date, arguing that August 9, 2022, General Election should be moved to August 2023 to allow President Uhuru Kenyatta to serve his full term.