NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 23 — A team of election officials and representatives of presidential candidates in the August 9 State House race are in Greece to inspect the printing of ballot papers at Inform Lykos (Hellas) SA Company’s factory premises in Athens.
The delegation led by IEBC Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera and Commissioner Francis Wanderi arrived in Athens on Saturday.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) facilitated the trip to would allow key stakeholders to witness the printing, packaging and logistics of the ballot papers to be used in the General Election.
IEBC invited Rev. Fr. Joseph Mutie and Abdirahman Ismail of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya while Rev. Elias Agola will represent the National Conference of Churches of Kenya.
Velma Maumo and Ben Agina are representing the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya while Brian Mbugua and Anthony Mwaura are representing the United Democratic Alliance.
The delegation also includes Felix Odhiambo Owuor of Electoral Law and Governance Institute of Africa, Anne Ireri and Chris Kamau of Elections Observation Group.
Others present are Daniel Kinuthia from the Office of Registrar of Political Parties, as well as Jane Njiru, and Gerson Owiti of the Political Parties Liasion Committee.
The Greek printing company, Inform Lykos, is printing more than 200 million ballot papers that will be used in the high-stake polls pitting Azimio against Kenya Kwanza.
IEBC paid the company Sh3 billion for the printing tender.
Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance has alleged that their Kenya Kwanza Alliance competitors have hatched a plot to rig the August vote by stiffing the ballot papers.
Chebukati has since shrugged off the claims noting that the exercise of printing the ballot papers is above board.
“All ballot papers will come through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and not as alleged by some politicians,” Chebukati said.
The presidential ballot papers will be the last to arrive in the country on July 29, 2022.
Chebukati stressed that the commission will not print any extra ballot papers saying they have only procured 22.1 million ballot papers which is the number or registered voters.
“There are no ballot papers from Uganda or anywhere else. Don’t allow individuals to lie to you. All ballot papers are serialized and we are only printing ballot papers to the tune of 22,120,258 million which is the number of registered voters per every elective seat,” Chebukati noted.
IEBC has cleared a total of 16,098 candidates to compete for political seats in the August 9 General Election.
The vacant positions include 290 seats for Members of the National Assembly, 1,450 for Members of County Assembly, and 47 Senate seats, another 47 for the positions of County Governor as well as 47 Woman Representative slots.
