[kictanet] Biometric Voter Registration

[Dorcas Muthoni]

Borrowed.....

IEBC looks at its budget and estimates they meed kshs 3billion for
biometric voter registration (BVR) kits. They ask treasury for the k but it
says there is no k. IEBC decides they will do manual registration. Cabinet
meets and decides BVR must be done otherwise there will be bloodshed and
Kenya will loose more than 3B. It promises IEBC the k but does not tell
treasury where the k is coming from.
treasury cannot make money the way idi amin did in UG.

IEBC does its tendering and a local indian company 'symphony' emerges top
with 4B. Since in this new dispensation everyone can talk and bicker
around, the media make a frenzy and say there must have been some bribing.
We waste two moth with generating chippy chappy talk and eventually IEBC
cancels the tendering process and says it will go manual. Again, cabinet
meets and decides we must go BVR. They tell IEBC not to worry as they will
do a Govt to Govt deal with canada.

In the Govt to Govt deal, all Kenya does is tell canada to do the
procurement process for Kenya. Canada ups the specs and only invites
canadian firms to tender( I mean Canada is for canadians. Not indians). The
new bill comes to 7B. The Govt is told to pay upfront. Its bila K. kits
cannot be released on time. IEBC says its going manual. Cabinet meets and
refuses. Treasury shows cabinet that there is no k in the kitty. Cabinet
decides to borrow with interest from Standard Bank.

In the end we get kits at 9B ..and have wasted a lot of valuable time
bickering... this is kenya



On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 3:05 AM, Baiju Shah <baiju at tele2media.com> wrote:

> Listers, ****
>
> ** **
>
> I was curious about the biometric voter registration kit and what all the
> fuss was about. My expectation was that this will be the state of the art
> stuff I have seen at exhibitions like Cartes, to my astonishment, I found
> that these kits include a low end Dell laptop, cheap camera, 4-4-2 finger
> print scanner, battery pack and it is not pretty to look at. Have we got
> good value for money is a big question mark? Have enhanced the local IT
> capability with such a project, it was procured from France…nope, it is a
> missed opportunity. Are we going to get 5 -10 individuals within the
> country who have the claim that understand the biometrics and the security
> requirements have the know-how to maintain these systems in country or we
> have still import in the expertise. We struggle to defend our ecommerce
> properties, how will we do with the voter lists? The procurement has been
> chaos, they are still going to purchase indelible ink, you have a biometric
> register therefore there is no need to get the toxic chemicals on the
> public’s fingers. ****
>
> ** **
>
> India did their EID project and the cost per registration (this has a
> higher security and durability needs then a voter registration) was under
> U$2.00 including the issue of a NFC card and labour, in our case the cost
> per registration, I assume 18m voters is $51 (if my maths is right) plus
> the administration cost, I am hoping to get my point across, we are really
> not benchmarking and maximising the use of the available resources,
> knowledge and for us to become a world class destination to deliver and
> export ICT products out of this country is not going to happen at this
> rate. We hire consultants from various big brands who and no or little
> experience of the a real life project except being able to put pretty
> presentation together, let us benchmark against the best and work out a
> roadmap that could enable us to deliver very good value for money.****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks.****
>
> ** **
>
> Baiju Shah****
>
> Managing Partner****
>
> Telemedia Africa Ltd****
>
> Nairobi,****
>
> Kenya.****
>
> Tel. +254 701691570****
>
> Email: baiju at tele2media.com****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
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-- 
Muthoni

My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
--------------------------------------------
Mahatma Gandhi once said:-

First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they fight you,
AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
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