Opposition Chief Raila Odinga has been dragged into the murky controversy of IEBC tender for ballot papers.
On Thursday, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale accused Raila of trying underhand dealings to have a South African firm, Paarl Media get the IEBC tender awarded to Dubai’s Al Ghurair Printing & Publishing.
According to the Daily Nation, Duale sensationally stated that two directors from the South African firm visited Raila a number of times between December 2015 and April last year.
The firm’s directors- Ben Sachs and Dr. Peter Shailesh met the former Prime Minister thrice in December 2015 and twice in April 2016.
And in the meetings, they reached an agreement that the firm was to give Raila sh1 billion which would be dependent on it getting the tender from IEBC.
He also said that Raila started attacking IEBC soon after the commission awarded the sh2.5 billion ballot tender to Al Ghurair.
Duale’s assertions are counter accusations after NASA accused Jubilee of influencing awarding of the tender to the Dubai firm.
Raila alleged that Al Ghurair family has held private meetings with President Uhuru Kenyatta in the past before they awarded the tender.
The storm has now culminated to and electoral crisis as four Presidential candidates rejected the tender awarded to Al Ghurair.
The four including Raila; independent candidates Joe Nyagah, Ekuru Aukot of the Thirdway Alliance and Professor Michael Wainaina have said they are not content with the printing of ballot papers by the Dubai firm.
In a meeting convened by IEBC on Wednesday bringing together all 8 Presidential candidates, the general feeling among the four was that Al Ghurair does not deserve the tender due to its links with Uhuru’s family.
“There was general consensus among presidential candidates during our meeting that the IEBC [should] cancel the tender to Al Ghurair, whom media reports suggest has links with the highest office in the land — and award it to a firm not associated with any of the political formations,” said Aukot as told by the Star.
Midweek reports revealed that Al Ghurair family that is said to have links with the president is a different one from the one that got the tender, only that they share the name. This, however, seems to have had less or zero impact on opposition’s belief that the president has links to the firm that got the tender.