BY SAM ALFAN.
A Kenya-born Canadian citizen and her company has sued senior government officials for breaching a contract for supply of a technological solution that could ensure consistency and clarity in communication within Government amongst other thing’s but not limited to “spying” on citizens software.
Mary Maina and her company Jipe Inc sued Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Treasury permanent secretary Chris Kiptoo, among others for breach of contract and is demanding damages of US $1,322,976 and another US $ 1,322,976 (about Sh171,325,392) as special damages.
She said in court papers that the government officials should be compelled to pay her for the losses suffered by her and her Canadian company (USD 950,430 paid as settlement to Tesxo and USD 372,546 as the loss of her house, which was allegedly auctioned for the settlement).
The businesswoman has also named the Attorney General, Jayesh Saini (is a regime financier and oligarch sued for his role in the project) and Eric Ngeno (Secretary for Policy Messaging and Scriptwriter for the President).She further want the court to issue an injunction restraining them or their agents from sending her and her mother menacing death threats by phone, email, or any other means over the contract or the company’s claim.
Maina describes herself as a person with deep experience in banking, healthcare, and political consulting.
She said she leverages data science and machine learning to develop and deploy innovative political campaign tools, strategies, and communication frameworks. Her docket includes consulting for political campaigns and referenda worldwide.
Court papers stated that on 7 November 2023, Ngeno, in his capacity as Secretary of Policy Messaging and Speechwriting at the Office of the President, invited her to an official meeting at Moxies Restaurant, Kilimani, over a communications solution.
At the meeting, Ngeno allegedly informed her that President William Ruto had tasked him to source for technological solutions to guarantee consistency and clarity in government communications, among other things.
She, therefore, requested her “as a matter of urgency” to develop “confidential software” to manage strategic communications toward the 2027 William Ruto presidential re-election bid. The software would have the capacity “to spy” on targets, she said.
She further adds that on 8 November 2023, she allegedly emailed Ngeno a proposal to develop the software for USD 923,346.00 (120 million).
In the proposal, Jipe Inc indicated that “the current government’s public relations are in turmoil, the packaging and dissemination of information is fragmented and lacking in credibility and authenticity.”
She adds that as a result, she suggested a “structured approach focused on relationship cultivation and controlled communication” to “improve public perception regarding the integrity, competence, dependability, and satisfaction with the current government.
“The proposed (in collaboration with Tesxo) an online public relations strategy incorporating “dialogic strategies” and “online monitoring tools to monitor, capture, and analyse conversations, context, and sentiments in real time”.
According to Mary the software’s capabilities and tasks included, Management of the President and Vice President’s social media pages—to, among others, manage the comment section and delete or hide negative and vulgar comments while responding to positive comments, Social listening—to provide authentic updates on mentions, topics, hashtags, trending disinformation, sentiments (positive or negative), areas, and regions’ concentration languages used concerning the President. Also, to monitor opposition and their area of reach and audience.
Others include relationship cultivation, reputation management—prioritise and amplify, Troll farm—to create over 100,000 real accounts on Facebook/Twitter/Tiktok that provide a click-bait model and are very effective for information dissemination.
The software would target leadership profiles and opposition-leaning profiles, carry out opposition research, intel collection and dissemination and Psychometric profiling and management, among others.
