Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has alleged the government is scheming to manipulate next year’s General Election and demanded the electoral commission sheds light on a South Korean company he claimed is earmarked to supply an elections system.

The Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader on Wednesday claimed that the procurement process for the Integrated Elections Management System (IEMS) had already been predetermined in favour of Miru Systems Co Ltd.

Gachagua: IEBC must tell Kenyans whether MIRU systems procurement process is lawful

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) this month advertised the tender for the supply, installation, testing, commissioning, support and maintenance of the IEMS, hardware equipment and accessories.

According to official tender documents, the system will be deployed for voter registration, candidate registration for elections, voter verification and identification as well as results transmission.

The tender, according to the IEBC website, is scheduled to close on September 1, 2026.

In a public notice, IEBC says it has suspended proceedings for the tender until further notice following a challenge at the Public Procurement Administration Review Board by another bidder that claims the tender specifications are tailor made for Miru.

Yesterday, Gachagua alleged that the procurement is merely a formality and that Miru Systems has already been selected after a process he claimed had been deliberately structured to favour the Korean company.

“What Kenyans do not know is that the tender process and result have already been pre-conceived and is awaiting rubber stamping to Miru Systems Co Ltd of South Korea,” Mr Gachagua said.

The DCP party leader also alleged that a senior IEBC official and a top government official who had interest in the tendering were canvassing for Miru Systems. He challenged IEBC to tell Kenyans whether the procurement process was in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPADA).

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Gachagua also alleged that senior government officials had been holding meetings with representatives of Miru Systems as part of efforts to integrate the company's technology with Kenya's voter registration database.

The proposed system, Gachagua claimed, would be used to manipulate the voter register and suppress voters in regions he claimed were perceived to be hostile to President William Ruto's administration.

According to Mr Gachagua, the alleged manipulation would occur during the migration of data from the existing Smartmatic Kiems kits to the new Miru technology. He claimed the alleged interference would be deliberately carried out close to the election to limit the time available to detect and correct discrepancies.

“The real mischief of IEBC… is to interfere with the voter register during the transfer of data from the Smartmatic Kiems kits to the Miru Technologies kits. This, they intend to do at the last minute so that there is not time to do corrections. This will cause massive vote rigging and voter suppression in some areas,” he claimed.

Mr Gachagua questioned whether the tender specifications have been designed around Miru Systems.

“I would like to challenge IEBC to confirm if the technical specifications in the tender have not been specially crafted around the profile of Miru Systems,” he said, urging the electoral commission to publish documents showing how the specifications were developed and whether other companies could meet the requirements.

"Technical problems"

Among the questions he raised was whether IEBC had undertaken sufficient market analysis to establish how many suppliers could meet all the mandatory requirements.

The Nation sent questions to IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethekon on his publicly known telephone numbers seeking his response to the allegations. He had not responded by the time of publication.

Mr Gachagua cast doubt on Miru Systems' record, citing other countries where it was involved in elections in which its technology was allegedly associated with technical problems.

He claimed that the company supplied biometric voter registration kits to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2018 but delivered them six months late.

In that election, the Africa Union Election Observers in their report, which the Nation independently verified, said that the voting process had to be delayed for hours as a result of delay in the activation of voting machines and late arrival of election materials.

“The polling stations visited opened on time. However, voting began with a delay of up to 5 hours in some cases. This delay was due to the activation of voting machines, the late arrival of election materials, and in a few rare cases, the late arrival of election staff,” reads the AU report.

The observers also reported that “malfunctions of the voting machines, the late availability of the electoral lists, and the tally sheets and results forms affected the smooth running of operations in some polling stations.”

IEBC officials label containers holding strategic and non-strategic election materials at St Bhakita Siakago Girls High School in Embu County on November 25, 2025

Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group

Mr Gachagua also cited alleged equipment failures during the DRC's 2023 election and problems involving voting technology in the Philippines and Iraq.

In the 2018 Iraq elections, UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Ján Kubiš observed some political leaders, including Vice Presidents of the Republic and the Speaker of the Parliament, raised concerns over some of the technical shortfalls encountered with the electronic vote tabulation devices.

The special envoy, according to a UN 2018 rapporteurs report, had also briefed the council on the public protests in Iraq following “allegations of electoral fraud and mismanagement of the parliamentary elections”.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Korea, Miru Systems touts itself as a “global leader in providing secure, end-to-end solutions for the entire electoral cycle”.

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It says it is renowned for its end-to-end electoral systems, and their strength lies in “producing high-security ID cards, voter cards, and advanced printing technologies for governments worldwide.”

In Zambia, which just concluded its General Election, Miru Systems profile indicates it “provided biometric mobile voter registration technology for the 2025 voter registration activities”.

However, European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) Zambia 2026 in its report said the results tabulation after temporary suspension was “deteriorated significantly”.

Mr Gachagua further warned that changing the election management technology less than a year before the 2027 election could undermine the credibility of the poll terming it a “recipe for failure and chaos.”

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dogetta@ke.nationmedia.com