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Auditor General, petitioner to give evidence on IEBC ouster bid

Ouko has found IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan, former CEO James Oswago and former Finance Minister Njeru Githae culpable in the procurement of biometric voter registration kits in a government-to-government arrangement/XINHUA-File

Ouko has found IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan, former CEO James Oswago and former Finance Minister Njeru Githae culpable in the procurement of biometric voter registration kits in a government-to-government arrangement/XINHUA-File

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 27 – Auditor General Edward Ouko is this week expected to appear before the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee as it commences hearings into a petition seeking the removal from office of the Chairman and eight Commissioners at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The House Committee Chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga is Tuesday expected to meet Barasa Kundu Nyukuri, a Bungoma resident who filed the anti-IEBC petition on grounds of incompetence and lack of integrity.

Nyukuri cited as part of his supporting evidence that he has relied on the Special Audit Report on the mismanagement and financial impropriety at the IEBC.

The House Committee has 14 days within which to submit a report to the House as required under Standing Order 230.

Once the committee tables its report, the House will have 10 days to decide whether or not the petition contains valid grounds for removal of the commissioners.

In a special audit on the procurement of the Electronic Voter Devices for the 2013 General Election by the IEBC, Ouko has found IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan, former CEO James Oswago and former Finance Minister Njeru Githae culpable in the procurement of biometric voter registration kits in a government-to-government arrangement.

Ouko said a scrutiny of IEBC documents had revealed that Tim Colby, the First Secretary for Development at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi, sat in a meeting that discussed the planned procurement despite the knowledge that his country was interested in the tender.

Kenya bought the 15,000 BVR kits using borrowed funds from the Canadian Government and at a price that was nearly double the initial budget.

The so-called government-to-government deal was awarded to the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a subsidiary of the Canadian Government in August 2012 at a cost of Sh7.2 billion – nearly double the initial Sh3.9 billion budget that the IEBC had set aside for the job.

Hassan has denied inviting the Canadian official to the meeting, but Ouko insists that as chairman of the commission he had the authority to deny Colby a seat in the meeting.

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The IEBC chairman insists any claims that Colby sat in the August 7, 2012 meeting are unfounded as there is no supporting evidence to back the claim.

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