Nairobi — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is implementing a far-reaching financial strategy with the National Treasury designed to shield the 2027 General Election from the chaotic tender wars that have historically disrupted Kenya’s electoral preparations.
IEBC Commissioner Ann Nderitu, speaking on Capital FM, revealed that the Commission is negotiating a multi-year financing framework that would allow it to receive substantial budget allocations well in advance, rather than during the final year before the polls.
The move, she said, is intended to break the cycle of late procurement, legal battles, and last-minute crisis management that have marked recent election cycles.
“We are in deep conversation with the National Treasury to have the money in advance for the subsequent financial years so that in the last financial year before the election we have the monies,” she said.
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The Commission hopes that early financing will enable tenders for critical systems, including voter registration technology, ballot papers, and results transmission platforms, to be issued in good time, reducing pressure in the final year leading to the election.
According to Nderitu, advance budgeting would help the Commission minimise legal challenges, avoid rushed procurement, and allow more transparent and competitive processes.
“We are looking at procurement issues because sometimes what pulls us backwards is late procurement. We are negotiating with the National Treasury to release some of the money in advance so that we are able to start some of the procurements that can be a problem moving towards the general election.
Tender Wars
The IEBC has, in previous election cycles, faced litigation and logistical delays over high-value tenders, often forcing last-minute sourcing of essential materials. The Commission says the early procurement plan is intended to cushion the 2027 poll preparations from similar disputes.
Days to the August 8th 2022 general elections, the Former IEBC Chairperson, the late Wafula Chebukati, postponed gubernatorial polls in the counties of Mombasa and Kakamega as well as elections for MP in the Kachiliba and Pokot South constituencies due to erroneous ballot papers.
The Chebukati led commission was embroiled in vicious tender wars which threatened to derail the 2022 election preparations after IEBC’s award of a Sh2.8 billion ballot papers contract was suspended a year to the poll.
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The appeal was filed by Shailesh Patel T/A Africa Infrastructure Development Company. Shailesh which also tendered for the contract, had moved to the review board to protest what it termed as unfairness in the award of the tender.
Shailesh, who is the proprietor of the aggrieved company, also accused Wafula Chebukati-led commission for not providing objective and quantifiable evaluation criteria in the tender.
IEBC was also caught up in tender battles in 2017 that saw the late Raila Odinga’s team strongly oppose the award of the ballot papers tender to Al Ghurair, a Dubai-based printing firm.
This time, IEBC settled on a Greek firm Inform Lykos (Hellas) S.A for the multi-billion-shilling tender for ballot papers and the voter register to be used in the polls.
The lucrative contract was to run for three years.
