By Gano Mazima Investigative Desk.
The Uganda Electoral Commission is on the spot again over the irregularities in awarding of an $80 million deal for its Biometric Voters Verification System Kits to Simi Valley Tech Ltd, a local novice company with no trace or records of handling voter-related biometric systems in its resume.
According to our credible insider source, who preferred remain anonymous, this mighty Investigative media house of TV10GanoMazima can authoritatively report that the chronology of this multi-million dollar deal emanated from Electoral Commission having advertised for the said services earlier this year in the local press.
Following this advertorial, it is said that 19 companies tendered in their bids or showed interest in the project and thus submitted their resumes to the EC.
Despite the required requisites for such a sensitive project, like formalization of a bid security of 14 billion, company bank stability records that showed it was worth only about 3 million Uganda shillings, among others, and no official address in Uganda, Simi Valley, though in 4th position of the 5, miraculously scooped the deal.
However, 10%was the bid security it comes to 14 billion shillings but they didn’t pay all this and the deal was endorsed in the attorney generals presence to complete the fake deal was done
At that time, from the corridors of State House, the Electoral Commission’s acting Secretary General Richard Komugisha Babo was tasked to investigate Simi Valley, and in his evaluation report, also confirmed that the company wasn’t fit for the job.
President Museveni is said to have also sent a team that included Farouk Namwesi, a state house attach to EC, Sheebah Rujoki is also working in ICT department in state house, and Hamidah Kibirige a senior officer in state who heads ICT, Arnold Mangeni is a serving officer in public service NITA, his ‘trusted’ lieutenant, to China to prove the valuation report, who on return are said to have lied and cooked their own facts to the president.
In the heat of the moment, it is said that information of this anomaly prompted the president to delegate General Caleb Akwandanaho aka Salim Saleh to take interest in the matter, and he is said to have been delegated to peruse through these developments, and indeed, in his report to the president, advised that Simi Valley had no experience, lest capacity, to handle such a project and should be ignored.
All this is said to have transpired before the official completion of the bidding process was cancelled. A cartel of State House origin, led by Farouk Namwesi and Hamidah Kibirige, is said to have zeroed down the 19 companies to 5, with allegedly full knowledge of the president.
Others named in this cartel include Sheebah Rujoki, Arnold Mangeni, Viola Ampeire, and Rhona Ndyomuhaki, all with links to the same plot 1 entity.
It should be noted that the same Simi Valley is said to have failed to realize 50% of the bid security and pay the balance after the election.
In light of the legal technicalities ahead, it is said that the Electoral Commission, through its head, Justice Byabakama, who sought his advice, which is said to have okayed the process.
It has now emerged that, despite all the earlier warnings, the Electoral Commission has already paid out 70% of the $80M to Simi Valley, fraudulently, with grave and serious consequences, should it fail, as we head into the 2026 elections.
Simi Valley Profile:
The company was registered less than 9 months ago by the URSB as a car import dealership business, and that this is its core area of expertise. How they branched into biometrics is unclear.
Watch this space.
