The big update is that there will be an update.
Kenya: State to Give Voter Kit Update, Says Eugene (The Star - Nairobi via All Africa)
Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa said the update will be made after a stakeholders' meeting to be held before the end of this week.I think he means he "can't comment." It's the only way the rest of the sentence makes sense.
He said the tender was expected to be complete "soon as possible" to enable the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission start voter registration in readiness for the next year's general election. This statement is expected before Friday.
...
"I can comment about which company will be given the award since its the Canadian who will determine the winner of the tender," said Wamalwa. Canadian firm, Code Inc, which was involved in the pilot BVR project of 18 constituencies in Kenya before the 2010 referendum is also among those said to be considered for the tender.
See also: Strange Things Afoot in Kenya Biometric Voter Registration Procurement, which ends with this summary chronology...
1. IEBC solicits proposals
2. IEBC narrows list to four providers
3. For whatever reason, IEBC can't choose among them.
4. IEBC cancels the project foreclosing any recourse to the bidders who followed the IEBC's instructions.
5. Hilary Clinton offers Kenya free biometric registration kits.
6. IEBC rejects the offer citing (unstated) political implications that would have arisen from such a donation, and a lack of time to complete the process.
7. IEBC makes a request of the Cabinet to acquire biometric registration kits through a government to government arrangement (Ghana, perhaps. UPDATE: It turns out to be Canada).
8. Laws will be changed to ensure that there's enough time.
9. Vendors scratch heads.
10. Still, nobody is sure where the kits will come from.
Since then, Kenya has received a KES 5.4B interest free loan from Canadian government.
4,600,000,000.00 KES
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=
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54,534,677.93 USD
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1 KES = 0.0118554 USD
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1 USD = 84.3500 KES
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The government of Kenya has outsourced all decision making about the procurement to the Canadians, the political implications in point 6 above apparently mitigated.
