IEBC: Stickers Impounded by DCI at JKIA are Non-Strategic Election Materials

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has reassured Kenyans that the August 9th general elections will be free, fair and credible.

This comes in the wake of the arrest of three Venezuelan nationals at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) carrying rolls of election materials, which has raised questions about the credibility of the upcoming elections.

While the IEBC maintains that the three were in the country to execute a lawful contract relating to the deployment of technology in elections, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said the foreigners could not be proven to be employees of Smartmatic International B.V, the UK-based company contracted by the electoral commission to provide technology for the August 9th election.

In a follow-up statement on Tuesday, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati clarified that the stickers the three Venezuelan nationals were found with are not strategic in the elections but identifiers of voting kits for packaging purposes.

“For easy identification of the KIEMS kits, Smartmatic is required to provide stickers to aid in labelling each of the kits for purposes of packaging and dispatch to all polling stations. The deployment of the KIEMS kits is currently underway,” Chebukati said in a statement.

“It is important to note that the stickers are non-strategic election materials. The stickers were printed based on the details of the gazette notice published on 1st July, 2022. The stickers contain information on the polling station, polling centre, ward, constituency and county as well as a unique barcode.”

Chebukati also exuded confidence in Smartmatic, terming it as a trusted election technology provider that has handled elections in Belgium, Estonia, Los Angeles County in the U.S., and Zambia, among others.

“The Commission holds regular meetings with Smartmatic to review the project status and ensure delivery of milestones in line with the Elections Operations Plan (EOP). To date, the project's progress is on track,” said Chebukati.

He further noted that preparation and dispatch of the KIEMS kits for the exercise is currently ongoing. 

“Each kit is being loaded with Electronic Voter Identification and Results Transmission System softwares, SIM cards of network operators as well as SD cards containing registered voters' biographic and biometric data for each polling station,” he said.