National Police Service (NPS) has released a statement giving reasons why they arrested a Venezuelan found with election related material at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Thursday.

NPS Director of Corporate Communications Bruno Shioso has revealed that among those police arrested was a Venezuelan who was carrying the sensitive IEBC poll material in his personal luggage.

JKIA. PHOTO/KAA

Here are the four issues raised by police on why they arrested the Venezuelan national immediately on landing at JKIA:

1. The stickers impounded from the Venezuelan were not declared to authorities by IEBC as is required by the law.

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2. The stickers were not accompanied by any IEBC official as is routine procedure when handling election related material.

3. Police found it suspicious that the election related stickers were being carried into the country in the personal luggage of a foreigner.

4. Police also queried why they were not notified of the importation of the stickers beforehand to provide security and escort as is standard procedure agreed with IEBC.

In the statement released on Friday, Shioso revealed that police had already set free the foreigner after establishing the electoral stickers belonged to electoral body IEBC.

Bruno Shioso. PHOTO/COURTESY

On Thursday, in a terse statement, IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati lambasted the police for their action saying the arrested foreigners were IT specialists attached to Smartmatic, the company supplying KIEMs kits which will be used in the August 9 general election.