Controversial Morpho firm in IEBC Fraud wins New ID Tender

Image result for French firm OT Morpho

Why do Kenya keep awarding the corrupt or those linked with various corruption scandals with new deals?

The corrupt have in more than once been praised although it remains one of the biggest menace eating away the economical stability of the state.

Kenya is set to start mass registration of fingerprints on March 18 in a multi-million shilling drive that brings back French firm OT Morpho to high-profile business with the government.

Image result for French firm OT Morpho

Interior principal secretary Karanja Kibicho said the French technology firm, which late last year rebranded to IDEMIA, has already supplied 31,500 biometric kits for the registration set to last 45 days.

“We have all the kits. They have been supplied by IDEMIA but their software has been prepared locally,” said Dr Kibicho, adding the State expects up to 50 million Kenyans to visit nearest offices of assistant chiefs for the biometric.

Related image

The French firm gained public attention after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission awarded it a Sh6 billion tender to supply voter identification and results transmission kits (KIEMS) ahead of the 2017 polls.

Former electoral agency chief executive Ezra Chiloba would later fight off claims of single-handedly procuring the services of the French firm.

On Thursday, Dr Kibicho said the entire biometric registration will cost Sh6 billion.

It is estimated that half the budget will be spent directly on the kits with bulk of the remaining portion going into paying the 50,000 registration officers.

The registration officers will work with the assistant chiefs in collecting basic information like bio data, citizenship, family tree, marital and employment status alongside the fingerprints of every citizen.

Dr Kibicho said the exercise to be piloted from February 15 will however not entail collection of DNA samples or information on physical location (GPS coordinates), even though recent changes in law allows the State to do so.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *