FB pixel

Kenyan election’s poll-day success belies suspicion of Smartmatic biometric voter kits

Categories Biometrics News  |  Elections  |  ID for All  |  Mobile Biometrics
Kenyan election’s poll-day success belies suspicion of Smartmatic biometric voter kits
 

Ahead of a court challenge of the results of Kenya’s recent election, African publication The Elephant examined the role of the biometric voter verification kits from voting system-maker Smartmatic and allegations of impropriety around its receipt of the contract.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) selected Smartmatic to provide 14,100 Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kits to supplement some 41,000 kits provided originally for the 2017 election by Idemia.

The election came off with scattered reports of KIEMS-related failures, totaling around 200 of the total number of around 46,000 biometric kits deployed. Local and international observers are praising the handling of the vote itself as relatively free of errors and irregularities, particularly compared to past votes. A court challenge of the results filed by Raila Odinga alleges wrongdoing in the tabulation of votes.

The Elephant notes that the Idemia-supplied KIEMS kits cost approximately 4.3 billion Kenyan shillings, or roughly US$887 each at exchange rates. The Smartmatic kits cost approximately KES 3.2 billion ($26.7 million), or roughly $1,890 each.

The publication then delves into the ownership structure of Smartmatic, pointing out that three independent directors have left the board of SGO Corporation Limited, the holding company which owns 83 percent of Smartmatic, since August, 2017, leaving only SGO co-founders Antonio Mugica and Roger Piñate. Mugica and Piñate are also the co-founders and operators of Smartmatic, which The Elephant suggests makes the presence of independent directors important.

Smartmatic Director of Integrated Communications Samira Saba told Biometric Update in an email that the company has “a robust corporate structure that allows us to serve clients efficiently all over the world, from Kenya to Estonia, and from Los Angeles to the Philippines.

The Elephant also reports that three employees of a Smartmatic subsidiary who are Venezuelan nationals residing in Panama were arrested entering the country in July. Although the arrest appears not to have resulted in any charges, it combined with a refusal by Smartmatic and the IEBC to name the company’s Kenyan partner to create an impression of inadequate transparency, at least to the Elephant.

The report reflects the troubled recent history of Kenyan elections, including allegations of wrongdoing by previous contractors. Smartmatic told the Elephant that it does not own or copy any voter data, and that is has abided by all relevant regulations and statutes.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

ID4Africa 2026 AGM will take place in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Cote d’Ivoire’s commercial capital, Abidjan, will be the venue of the 2026 edition of ID4Africa’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). The…

 

Expansion of biometric tech demands trust before adoption, survey finds

A new report on consumer attitudes toward biometrics performed by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) explores the growing reliance…

 

EU launches interoperable biometric matching service for border control

The European Union has made a big step in making its biometric databases for law enforcement and border control interoperable….

 

EU calls for public feedback on European Business Wallet

The European Commission has issued a call for feedback on the EU Business Wallet, a digital identity wallet intended for…

 

Au10tix identifies new deepfake fraud tactic that probes for security vulnerabilities

The repeaters are here. I repeat: the repeaters are here. The Q1 2025 Global Identity Fraud Report from Au10tix has…

 

Leveraging digital ID in the financial sector: ID4Africa panel

Financial inclusion was highlighted as the mother of all digital ID use cases during an early panel discussion on the…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

DIGITAL ID for ALL NEWS

Featured Company

ID for ALL FEATURE REPORTS

BIOMETRICS WHITE PAPERS

BIOMETRICS EVENTS

EXPLAINING BIOMETRICS