Tuesday, July 26, 2022 – Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman, Wafula Chebukati, has come to the defense of three Venezuelans who were arrested with crucial election materials ahead of the August 9th election.
In a statement on Tuesday, Chebukati said the three were employees of Smartmatic International B.V, a company that won the tender to service the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS).
Chebukati also defended the involvement of the Kenyan firm Seamless Limited, claiming that they are collaborating with Smartmatic to provide critical technology for the upcoming elections.
“The tender document required the bidder to provide a detailed support and maintenance plan as well as documentary proof of ICT technical support staff with a local registered office in Kenya. Smartmatic met this requirement by establishing a local partner in the country,” Chebukati said in a statement.
On why the Venezuelans were arrested with IEBC stickers, Chebukati said the stickers are not necessary but they were ordered as per the Gazette Notice published on July 1, 2022.
“It should be noted that the stickers are non-strategic election materials.” “The stickers were printed in accordance with the details of the gazette notice published on July 1, 2022,” Chebukati explained.
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