Nairobi — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Monday dismissed reports stickers confiscated by the police at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport were sensitive election materials.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati said the said stickers meant to be used for labelling technology devices were "non-strategic election materials".
"The stickers were printed based on the details of the gazette notice published on July 1, 2022. The information therein is available to the public and can be accessed on the Commission's website," Chebukati said.
"For easy identification of KIEMS kits, Smartmatic is required to provide stickers to aid in labelling each of the kits for purposes of packaging and dispatch to all the polling stations," he went on to state.
Chebukati added that the stickers contain information on the polling station, polling centre, ward, constituency and county as well as a unique barcode.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigation's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) has been propelled to the centre of the storm as the spat between DCI Chief George Kinoti and IEBC's Chebukati escalated following the arrest of a technology contractor and two of his associates at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday, July 21.
DCI: Venezuelan nationals linked to IEBC had expired passports, none is a bona fine contractor
Camargo Castellanos, an employee of Smartmatic International B.V, the firm contracted by the electoral commission to supply election technology, was arrested for what the police termed as a security breach having held the stickers at the centre of the controversy in his personal luggage.
ATPU also arrested Rodriguez Garcia and Sosa Suarez, Castellanos' associated, who had arrived in the country on July 15.
Kinoti claimed Rodriguez and Suarez had managed to sneak in seventeen others rolls of stickers without detection by customs authorities.
The DCI chief further said the three travelled on expired passports and that they were not employees of Smartmatic International B.V.
Capital News however established the validity of Venezuelan passports was extended for five years in 2019 following a national crisis.
"Venezuelan passports that were issued or expired on or before 21 May 2019 may be considered valid by UK authorities for 5 years beyond their expiry date," the UK said in an immigration notice following the extension of the validity of Venezuelan passports.
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The U.S. Department of State also accepts passports from Venezuela within the extended validity period.
It also emerged that Rodriguez had worked for Smartmatic for over a decade, rising to the role of Global Service Deployment Manager.
Panama-based IEBC contractor arrested at JKIA works as Smartmatic's deployment chief: data
In his statement on Monday, Chebukati maintained the the three Venezuelan nationals were bona fide contractors and appeared to dismiss asserts by Kinoti linking them to a local firm identified as Seemless Limited.
Chebukati said once successful, a bidder was required to provide proof of ICT support staff with a local registered office in Kenya.
He also said IEBC's decision to contract Smartmatic was upheld by the Public Administrative Review Board, the High Court, the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal.
Chebukati assured the country plans to deploy the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits used as voter identification devises and relaying of electronic results form polling centres were well on course.
He said Smartmatic supplied an additional 14,100 devices to add to 41,000 kits that were found to be in good order out of 45,000 the commission had in its possession.
He said 55,100 kits were available for deployment ahead of the August 9 General Election.
Chebukati noted the number of polling stations had been revised to 46,229 down from 46,233 after seven stations in Bungoma's Kimilili were merged into three.
