12 years later, ‘Chicken gate’ election procurement scandal remains unresolved

It started with the pay-out of millions of shillings in what the courts in the United Kingdom described as bribes to Kenyan election officials by a British company. The illicit deals were carried out under the code name ‘chicken’ essentially to award lucrative printing contracts.

The Kenyan public would be made privy to Smith and Ouzman, after a London Court interrogated the entanglement between the British company and the defunct Interim Independent Electoral Commission. 

Over the course of two years (October 1, 2008 - December 2010) senior managers and commissioners in the now-defunct Interim Independent Electoral Commission or IIEC were beneficiaries of kickbacks from Smith & Ouzman, a UK- based company specialising in printing security documents.

The bribes amounted to about Ksh.50 million. This was done by inflating most of the printing contracts by up to 38 per cent.

The underhand cash deals even had a code name in the emails exchanged between the printer and election officials.

‘Chicken’ was the word that would facilitate Smith & Ouzman winning seven tenders to supply election materials such as ballot papers, voter registration forms, voter ID cards and nomination forms.

All these revelations came out in a four-year-long forensic investigation carried out by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, that investigates and prosecutes serious and complex fraud cases, including bribery and corruption.

A list naming senior government officials in the corruption racket was also released.

Former Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, suspended IIEC Chief Executive Officer James Oswago, Uasin Gishu woman representative Gladys Boss Shollei who was the then deputy CEO, lawyer Kennedy Nyaundi, then a commissioner, Kenneth Karani, who was a senior procurement officer and former KNEC Boss Paul Wasanga were all named.

 A 2014 case prosecuting senior managers at Smith and Ouzman revealed that the printer provided election materials for the 2010 Constitution referendum, four parliamentary by-elections held in Shinyalu, Bomachoge, South Mugirango and Matuga as well as a host of civic polls.

The senior managers at Smith and Ouzman implicated in the case included Christopher Smith the former chairman) his son Nicholas Smith who handled sales and marketing (director), Tim Forrester who served as the international sales manager and Trevy James Oyombra, the Kenyan agent.

The funds were mostly transferred to Mr Oyombra’s accounts held at KCB and then distributed to beneficiaries.

This evidence was enough to see Nicholas Smith serve three years in jail while his father Christopher, got a one-and-a-half year suspended term with a 250-hour community service.

 A year later in March 2016, Kenya recovered Ksh.52 million from the “Chickengate” scandal. Former Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chief Executive Officer Halakhe Waqo, who appeared before the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, said this was part of proceedings to repatriate assets of the London-based security printer. The money Waqo said would be used to purchase ambulances for Kenyan hospitals.

In 2017, some movement on the case in Kenya when former IIEC chief executive James Oswago and Smith and Ouzman agent Trevy Oyombra were arrested over the Chickengate scandal.

Oswago was later charged alongside former official Hamida Kibwana and Trevy Oyombra. They faced charges in relation to the millions paid as a bribe to IIEC officials.

Oswago also faced an alternative charge of failing to comply with procurement laws and another charge of receiving Ksh.2 million from Hamida Ali Kibwana as an inducement to have the IIEC award a printing contract.

Meanwhile, in February 2019 Smith and Ouzman’s Nicholas Smith walked out of prison after completing a three-year sentence, turning the spotlight on Kenyan authorities and the pace of the trial.

By October 2021 there were no prosecutions to speak of on the Kenyan side. In fact, the anti-corruption court adjourned the trial of Oswago and his co-accused as a result of the death of his daughter.

The case continues however with no sign of when it will be concluded.