An advertising company pursuing a claim of Sh198 million from the Independent Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been dealt a major blow after the High Court allowed the electoral commission to challenge the contract arising from the 2013 General Election.
Transcend Media Group is accusing the IEBC of reneging on paying for publicity services offered to the commission including buying space in the media for the publication of all polling stations and presidential results.
Lady Justice Roselyne Aburili declined an application by Transcend to strike out IEBC’s statement of defence and enter summary judgement in its favour.
IEBC’s senior legal officer Moses Kipkogei said in a sworn statement that Transcend had misconstrued that a letter of February 18, 2013 had created a contract with the commission.
Transcend argued in the suit that it used Sh106.7 million to publish all polling stations, Sh23 million on publishing the presidential results and an additional cost of Sh69 million incurred from a revised media plan.
The firm said it was contracted by the United Nations Development Programme on February 7, 2013 to carry out media campaign in print and electronic media on behalf of the electoral commission.
According to the UN, the contract was to enable the electoral commission to carry out successful elections to avoid the post-election violence witnessed after the 2007 elections.
COMPREHENSIVE MEDIA CAMPAIGN
The intention was to sensitise the public through a comprehensive media campaign strategy to prepare Kenyans to take part in free and fair democratic elections.
A contract was signed with Transcend for Sh224 million to provide advertising and media bookings for the electoral commission in the print and electronic media in the run-up to the elections.
However, the electoral commission informed Transcend that various politicians, political parties and the public had complained there were certain important aspects of publicity that had been left out of the programme.
Consequently, Transcend was asked to expand the programme over and above the UNDP contract and promised to meet the additional cost incurred by the firm.
The electoral commission, through a letter dated February 18, 2013 signed by the chief executive, directed the advertising firm to carry out a revised media plan.
The firm said it undertook extra production by buying additional advertising space in the media.
However, the commission argued that all its contracts were required to be in writing and subject to a competitive procurement process.
It denied instructing Transcend to provide publicity services its behalf.
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