Smartmatic International B.V, the firm contracted by the electoral commission to supply election technology for over a decade has been in the headlines recently, especially after three of its employees were arrested on Thursday, July 21 at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The three were arrested after being found with stickers that belonged to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ahead of the August 9, 2022, General Election.
This forced IEBC Chairman, Wafula Chebukati to come forth and defend the Commission claiming it had legally contracted the company to supply, deliver, install, test, commission, support and maintain Kenya Integrated Election Management System.
IEBC protested the arrests, citing intimidation, harassment and blackmail of election officers, a few days before the fast-approaching polls.
However, looking back at history, Smartmatic has a history of electoral fraud committed in different countries.
According to its website, Smartmatic was established in Florida, United States in 2002, and the company lists London, United Kingdom as its global headquarters.
Initially, the firm developed secure software for banking but shifted focus to improving voting technology.
“Smartmatic has successfully deployed secure election technologies in more than 30 countries. Election officials have used Smartmatic systems to record and tabulate more than 6.5 billion votes with zero security breaches. We pioneered voting machines with voter-verified paper records, a feature that is now the de facto standard for automated elections worldwide,” the company states on its website.
The company has been contracted by several countries across the world to manage election technology.
At the same time, Smartmatic provided the 3,800 registration kits that were configured by locally hired and trained technicians under the supervision of its personnel.
In March 2016, Smartmatic said it provided election technology and services to the Electoral Commission of Uganda (ECU) to improve the transparency and efficiency of its processes ahead of its General Election.
The controversial Smartmatic Company further lists Uganda as one of its case studies.
Smartmatic supplied and configured all the hardware and software necessary to run a tailored biometric voter verification solution that was used in all (Uganda) polling centres to validate the identity of voters prior to ballot casting.
In Sierra Leone, Smartmatic says it worked alongside the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to create a comprehensive database with information of its citizens.
“By gathering biometric and biographic data of the entire population, using an identity management solution fully customised to the specific needs of Sierra Leone, authorities were able to create a new National Civil Register and a Voter Register to be used during the March 2018 elections,” Smartmatic adds.
While vindicating the action taken by the police, National Police Spokesperson Bruno Shioso said the arrest was necessitated by the sensitivity of election material found in the possession of the three.
He says the arrests were conducted with due diligence. “The said stickers were not declared as per the law,” said Shioso.
The stickers were also not accompanied by an IEBC official as per the routine procedure.
Police also took issue with the fact that such sensitive materials were carried in the personal luggage of a foreigner.
He also notes that the police were not notified of such an import beforehand to provide necessary security and escort as per the standard procedure.
With only 14 days until the much-anticipated General Election, questions continue to linger on the validity and transparency of the Smartmatic Company.