The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will spend an estimated Sh10 Billion on the repeat presidential election, without including the cost of printing ballot papers.
The billions will cater for the cost of hiring election officials such as polling clerks and presiding officers as well as transport and security.
Refusing to divulge details of the budget, IEBC Communications Manager Mr Andrew Limo on Tuesday told journalists that the electoral body was finalising a tabulation of the costs that will be forwarded to the Treasury for funding.
Interestingly, it has also emerged that the IEBC signed a two-year contract with the Dubai-based Al Ghurair firm in which the firm remains the primary provider of ballot papers in case of any by-elections.
This, therefore, indicates that the IEBC is bound by contract to enlist Al Ghurair in printing the ballots for the October 17 fresh presidential poll.
"This agreement is valid for two years, so we will be printing all the ballot papers that are required for the by-elections, too.
"We have had this contract since 2014. The contract that we have signed is a framework contract that will (last) another two years so we will be printing and supply for other by-elections scheduled in the next two years," Mr Lakshmanan Ganapathy, Al Ghurair General Manager clarified in July.
A directive from the IEBC indicates that the repeat election will have NASA leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta as the two contestants for the Presidency.
The NASA leader has already demanded that the ballots be printed by a firm other than Al Ghurair firm that printed the ballots for the August 8 elections, presenting a potential crisis if the contract will hold.
