Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati has announced that printing of Presidential ballot papers for the August General Election has commenced.
Chebukati on Thursday evening stated that the exercise which had been delayed over a pending court case would be conducted by Dubai-based Al Ghurair.
He further noted that the exercise would be concluded by August 3 when the ballot papers are expected to arrive in the country.
This followed a ruling by the Court of Appeal which quashed an earlier decision by the High Court to cancel the printing tender for the presidential papers.
A five Judge bench consisting of Justices Erastus Githinji, Roselyn Nambuye, Alnashir Visram, Professor James Ouko and Jamila Mohamed noted that the High Court erred in their decision to cancel the tender.
In their ruling, the appellate Judges explained that the High Court was wrong in finding that there was sufficient time for the IEBC to restart the procurement process for presidential ballot papers.
The Judges noted that IEBC resorted to direct procurement because of time constraints.
“We are unable to find evidence that IEBC’s choice of direct procurement was to avoid competition. It was because of limited time,” the judges noted.
The court further stated that with the choice of direct procurement, public participation was not mandatory.
“Subject to meeting conditions for direct procurement, the law does not slap a requirement for public participation prior to picking direct procurement," the Court of Appeal ruled.
The Judges also highlighted that a contract cannot be split or separated and as such, the High Court erred in quashing the Presidential ballot papers tender while okaying the printing of the other papers.
