The shocking amount of money Kenyans are paying for the repeat elections

The repeat presidential election will cost KSh12 billion and the commission has already written to the National Treasury requesting that the money be released quickly so they can prepare well for the election due in 35 days.

This will be made up of the cost of hiring polling clerks and officials, transport and security, all of which do not change even though Kenyans are only going to the poll for one elective seat, as opposed to the six on August 8.

The Sh12 billion estimate does not however include the cost of printing ballot papers, which the Raila Odinga-led National Super Alliance (Nasa) has demanded must be done by another firm other than Dubai-based Al Ghurair.The Kenyan election is among the most expensive globally.In the last election, the IEBC spent Sh42 billion, but it was still indicted by the Supreme Court for having “failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the Constitution”.

It has since emerged that the IEBC had signed a two-year contract with the firm that might guarantee them a subsequent contract for printing ballot papers for all by-elections within a two-year period, including the October fresh presidential poll.

“This agreement is valid for two years, so we will be printing all the ballot papers that are required for the by-elections, too."We have had this contract since 2014. The contract that we have signed is a framework contract that will (last) another two years so we will be printing and supplying for other by-elections scheduled in the next two years,” Lakshmanan Ganapathy, the general manager of Al Ghurair, told journalists who were part of a team that observed the printing and packaging of ballot papers in Dubai in late July.Raila also has issued new conditions to be implemented before the electionsThey, include the sacking of several election commission officials, a review of the electronic transmission of results and for all eight presidential candidates who took part in the August 8 poll to be allowed to contest the October 17 election."There will be no elections on the 17th of October until the conditions that we have spelt out in the statement are met," he said on Tuesday.