Aug. 9 Update: It still is not entirely clear what will happen on the procurement of the Biometric Voter Registration kits going forward, and the original failure of the procurement process will continue to be investigated and debated in Parliament and elsewhere. The Star today has a story some detailed discussion of the Code, Inc., the Canadian company that was the incumbent provider for the pilot program selected under the old Interim Independent Electoral Commission and appears to be set to remain in place through a transaction between the Kenyan and Canadian governments.
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The Government of Kenya in a meeting headed by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga has addressed serious public and international concerns caused by the cancellation of the BVR effort by the IEBC, reports the Daily Nation:
The government on Monday stepped in to buy biometric equipment for the registration of voters.
To protect the credibility of the election and build public confidence, a top-level crisis meeting agreed that the kit will be bought from Canada on a government-to-government basis.
The Elections Act will be amended to make room for registration of 18 million voters, an exercise that has been delayed by the failure of the deeply divided Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to award the Sh3.9 billion tender for the purchase of biometric voter registration kits.
The voter registration deadline will also be extended from 90 days prior to the election to 45 days before the election to allow for implementation of the new system.
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