Undisclosed details have emerged about the Ksh6 Billion tendering process of the KIEMS voter kits during the 2017 elections.
Appearing at the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, the commission's chairman Wafula Chebukati on Wednesday revealed that the decision to direct tender was approved by the commissioners under the recommendation of the CEO Ezra Chiloba.
"The role of the commission is policy formulation, strategy and oversight. We told the secretariat to go ahead with procurement but in accordance with the law,” he told the committee led by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi.
His testimony was in direct contradiction of acting CEO Marjan Hussein's account who gave a different narrative stating that former CEO Chiloba was single-handedly responsible for the procurement of the voter kits.
According to Chebukati, the commissioners approved the direct procurement procedure due to time constraints of holding the election.
“An election was coming up so we had to make a decision. Under the circumstances, there was no room for other options,” he disclosed.
On the other hand, Hussein had told the committee on Tuesday that the decision was not approved by the plenary and that it was Chiloba who was solely responsible.
“The procurement was discussed in the plenary but the meeting did not approve direct procurement,” Mr Hussein stated.
Wednesday's session was mired with controversy with Chebukati requesting to give his account off-camera citing sensitivity of the information.
“Some of the documents in our possession like the minutes obtained from previous meetings are confidential and cannot be tabled where members of the fourth estate are around. For instance, the features contained in the ballot papers are elements which should remain the commission’s secret,” Chebukati appealed.
His request was however rejected by a majority of legislators and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed read out the minutes which revealed that Chebukati, former commissioners Consolata Nkatha, Roselyn Akombe and Margaret Mwachanya approved the purchase of the kits under the recommendation of Chiloba.
Three commissioners Boya Molu (current), Abdi Guliye (now former), Paul Kurgat (now former) were opposed to the tender arguing that the deal did not offer any value for money.
