Smartmatic; Company Museveni wants to run Kenya’s 2022 elections

In September last year, Smartmatic was evaluated by the Ugandan government as the best bidder for providing biometric voter verification equipment for the 2021 election with its bid of Sh82.8 billion (US$22.4 million). The privately-owned, multinational company which is alleged to have helped the Ugandan regime win the 2016 elections also conducted this year’s polls, which were heavily manipulated in favor of President Museveni.

Read: Why CS Matiangi has blocked Ruto from leaving the country for Uganda

Credible sources now reveal negotiations between handlers of the Ugandan leader and high-ranking officials from the IEBC have been going on for some time in Kampala, without the knowledge of other top officials from the electoral body.

”The IEBC negotiating an election tender with them (Smartmatic). The company is being introduced to Kenya by Museveni to replace OT Morpho which has conducted our elections previously and managing our technological aspects. The negotiations are in Uganda,” a source confides to this publication.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in January this year won a decisive re-election victory, but his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud and rejected the results.

Dictator Museveni won 5.85 million votes, or 58.6 percent, while main opposition candidate Bobi Wine had 3.48 million votes (34.8 percent). The United States and an African Union election monitoring group complained of election irregularities.

Read: Questions as Uganda’s Museveni vows to help DP Ruto’fight’ in 2022

Smartmatic or Smartmatic SGO Group is a UK-based multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions, identity management systems for civil registration, and authentication products for government applications.

Today’s revelation comes just hours after Deputy President William Ruto was blocked from traveling to Uganda by state officials. This was the second time the DP was traveling to the neighboring country on a private visit to meet Yoweri Museveni.