The 2017 general elections was full of intrigues. Away from the usual shenanigans of politicians, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)-tasked with conducting the emotive polls-nearly plunged the country to a crisis only evidenced in 2007-2008 general elections. Commissioners took sides; the chief executive officer was killing ladies with his looks while defying the IEBC chairman, and the ICT manager with some ‘password’ was being brutally murdered alongside his innocent side chick. It was a script out of Hollywood.
The former IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba-young, good looks and well read-was at the centre of it all. His boss suspended him twice before finally firing him citing procurement malpractices ahead of the August and the repeat presidential election in 2017.
Procurement Mess
Money is in procurement and Chiloba must have made a tidy sum when he served as the commission CEO. His sacking was as a result of a kes9 billion procurement mess at the IEBC. The rot at the IEBC came to the fore when the commission appeared before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee and went on to accuse Chiloba for opting for direct procurement in tenders worth kes 6.5 billion during the 2017 polls. He never involved the commissioners.
The Five Tenders That Got Chiloba In Trouble
Provision of Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS)by OT Morpho
Supply of satellite phones for the Results Transmission System
Servers by IBM to host the Biometric Voter Register
Hosting of the KIEMS database and the provision of communication services by Scanad
Worth of the contracts
KIEMS-$23.8 million (kes2.4 billion)
One of the database-$2.7 million (kes270 million)
Communication services-kes350 million.
Satellite phones cost-not established
What he owns
Large tract of land in Trans Nzoia County
Chilobae-as Kenyan women christened the former IEBC CEO-has a large chunk of land at his Kwanza rural home in Trans-Nzoia county. In multiple interviews with different news outlets, Chiloba said he bought the land in 2011. He has planted planted 600 passion-fruit trees, 500 tissue culture bananas, 100 avocado trees and 340 coffee trees and indigenous trees.
He has no other known business.
What is his net worth?
His wealth may be a well kept secret but we can surmise one thing-atleast from the tenders he was involved in: Mr Chiloba is stinking rich. If he took any kickbacks in return to dishing out tenders, the CEO can be worth anywhere between Kes200 million to kes400 million.
