Independent, Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s Chairman, Wafula Chebukati has cleared the air on the election stickers which were in possession of the three foreigners arrested on Thursday last week at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The commission’s boss now says the stickers are not strategic election materials but identifiers of voting kits for packaging purposes.
“For easy identification of the KIEMS kits, Smartmatic is required to provide stickers to aid in labeling each of the kits for purposes of packaging and dispatch to all polling stations”, said Chebukati.
This is after security, politicians and a section of Kenyans raised eyebrows on the credibility of the August 9th election due to the mode in which the materials were delivered to the country.
Chebukati maintains that the foreigners, Joel Gustavo Rodríguez García, Camargo Castellanos Jose Gregorio, and Salvador Javier Suarez were in the country to execute a lawful contract relating to the deployment of technology in elections.
However, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations could not prove that the foreigners were employees of Smartmatic International B.V company.
“As per the contract dated 25th November 2021 between IEBC and M/S Smartmatic International Holding B.V vide tender no. IEBC/01T/001/21/2022-2021 the three suspects are not expressly indicated as employees of IEBC or Smartmatic International B.V,” the directorate said in a statement on Sunday.
Further, the DCI said the three did not bear any letter or documentation indicating that they had been invited by the commission.
“Further investigation conducted on Camargo Castellanos Jose Gregorio also showed that he had arrived in the country on a business visa on the invitation of one Abdulahi Abdi Mohamed to his office for work-related activities via a letter addressed to the officer in charge of the visa section Embassy of Kenya on 18th July. 2022,” said DCI.
The IEBC boss also in a statement seen by the media explained that the stickers were printed based on the details of the gazette notice published on 1st July 2022.
He confirmed that the stickers contain information on the polling station, polling center, ward, constituency, and county as well as a unique barcode.
The agency insists that they have confidence in Smartmatic company, terming it as a trusted election technology provider that has delivered effectively in other countries such as Belgium, Estonia, and Zambia.