The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has planned a trip for presidential candidates who wish to inspect the printing of presidential ballot papers.
IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said on Thursday that the commission organized the trip for transparency purposes since the presidential papers will be printed last.
Candidates will travel to Athens in Greece next week to witness the ballot printing process.
“Presidential candidates who would like to travel to inspect the printing process will be allowed to travel between July 15 and 20 this month to go to Greece to witness the process,” Chebukati said.
Greek firm Inform Lykos is printing over 200 million ballot papers at a cost of Sh3.2 billion.
The first batch of the 132 million ballot papers arrived in Kenya on Thursday morning.
IEBC Chair Wafula Chebakati refuted claims that there was a plot to sneak ballot papers through Uganda in a rigging plot.
Suna East Junet Mohamed had alleged that Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza was planning to import marked ballot papers through the Ugandan border, with Moses Wetangula at the centre of the operation.
“In your plan, you wanted to use ballots marked in Uganda before they’re transported through the Ugandan border. We know every plan that you had including the meeting you had with Chebukati in Karen,”Junet said.
“Come out clearly and tell Kenyans the position of that matter. Ballot papers are key instruments in the electoral process. We know what you did in 2017 and we don’t want elections to be disqualified again.”
In response, Chebukati said: “All ballot papers will arrive from JKIA. No ballot papers are arriving from Uganda.
“All ballot papers are serialised. We are printing ballot papers, which is the number of registered voters. And then we will print the exact same number for the six elective seats. There is nothing like extra ballot papers being printed. We usually do not have 100 per cent voter turnout. So, we will not have any extra papers.”
