Extortion plot that ruined March 4 poll

More than 10 million Kenyans voted in the last election. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By KIPCHUMBA SOME

Kenya: Anti-corruption authorities are investigating alleged attempts to force a company supplying kits for this year’s General Election to part with a bribe of Sh340 million.

A senior electoral official, his secret girlfriend and her longtime friend are believed to have tried to force Face Technologies of South Africa, which provided electronic voter identification devices, to part with a $4 million kickback. The plot also drew in the friend’s mother, a controversial political activist and businesswoman.

At least five secret meetings were allegedly arranged by the three co-conspirators to pressure officials of the company to part with a bribe. Three of those took place in the home of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission official, while a fourth took place at the home of the political activist from the Mt Kenya region.

Secure kickback

This failed attempt to secure a kickback has been cited as the reason for a delay in signing a contract after the South African company won a $16.7 million (Sh1.5 billion) tender to supply some 33,000 electronic voter identification devices. IEBC officials have claimed the delay was due to a legal challenge of the tender award and a “hostile relationship” between one of their officers and representatives of Face Technologies.

The short time between the signing of contracts for various electronic systems and the March 4 election has since been cited as the main reason IEBC faced difficulties using them to identify voters. Face Technologies had a mere seven-day window in which to set up data from another contractor on their devices. While the handheld devices were working, the firm has said, election officials either forgot to charge the batteries or were not trained properly on how to use them and other associated equipment.

At least five IEBC officials face prosecution over the irregular tendering process as a result of an investigation ordered by the Supreme Court. The revelation of an attempt to demand a kickback is, thus, just the latest twist in the sordid tale.

Sources familiar with the plot say the IEBC official roped in his Kenyan girlfriend, who is a Nairobi-based envoy, and her close friend, a prominent politician’s daughter, to try and press the firm for the $4 million bribe. The envoy, who represents Kenya at an international organisation in the country, and the politician’s daughter are old friends.

Officials from Face Technologies were invited to the IEBC official’s home in Nairobi at least three times late last year and explicitly asked to give the bribe. There was another meeting at a beach hotel in Mombasa where the IEBC official was on a retreat with other senior managers to plan for General Election. Sources we spoke to say the two women were present at all four meetings. However, the South African firm refused to play ball leading to the month-long delay in the signing of their contract.

“The company argued that it had quoted a bare minimum figure and such a big bribe would wipe out their slim profit margin,” said a source aware of the issue. The delay also led to some Sh156 million in unforeseen costs for Face Technologies. An additional 4,600 EVIDs were provided for extra polling stations above the number in the contract. Attempts to secure payment for these gadgets have reportedly been met with fresh demands, made through electronic communication, for a facilitation fee.

The company had earlier warned the IEBC that any delay in awarding and signing the contract would lead to challenges in acquiring the kits. The IEBC official, however, held out for four weeks in the hope the company would feel compelled to pay something.

At the official’s behest, the two women allegedly continued to pressure the company to cough up the money, claiming it would fast-track the signing of the contract. “The two were the go-betweens,” said the source. “They are the ones who made the demands... and even offered to negotiate a (lower) figure on behalf of the IEBC official.”

The politician’s daughter allegedly took the company’s representative in Kenya to her mother, who was influential in the last regime, to press for the bribe.

“The meeting happened at her mother’s house, but nothing much came out of it because the official did not know how to play ball,” said our source. “The people who were gathered there expected him to come with some cash but he did not.” Face Technologies was eventually given the contract without paying a bribe, but the delay meant it could barely source for the materials required in time. The contract document, when it finally came, was emailed from the envoy’s address.

Varied irregularly

This, among other allegations of corruption and malfeasance at the IEBC, is the subject of ongoing investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. The electoral body spent billions of shillings acquiring materials and technologies for the March 4 polls, but the tendering processes for most of the items have been called in to question.

While some tenders were varied irregularly, others were sealed too late for the election. The result was tight timelines, poor coordination and chaos on polling day.