By Allan Kisia
The controversy surrounding the ISO certification given to City Council of Nairobi in April has taken a new twist.
Former Town Clerk Philip Kisia now claims the storm arose following differences between an accreditation and a certification organisation.
Kisia said the council is a victim of a row between Kenya Accreditation Service (Kenas), recognised by the Government as the sole accreditation body, and Procurement of Dutch Quality Systems-Kenya (DQS-Kenya) institutional and protocol disagreements.
“DQS-Kenya’s failure to pay Sh2 million affiliation fees to Kenas, though not mandatory, caused altercation between the two organisations with the council being the victim,” he said.
Speaking at a Press conference in Nairobi, the former town clerk explained that ISO 9001:2008 is not a measure of how many people in Nairobi are satisfied with the services offered by the City Council of Nairobi.
Last week Kenas said DQS-Kenya is not an authorised certification body in the country. Kenas managing director Sammy Milgo further said due process was not followed in awarding the ISO 9001: 2008 certificate.
public scorn
The award elicited public scorn, with many disagreeing with the certification.
But speaking to the Press on Sunday, Kisia explained that the certification is about clearly documented steps that the council would use to improve service deliver.
“ ISO certification was to be the first step for improving all services, not a judgment of how the city council was performing or had performed in the past,” he added.
He continued: “It is about where we want to go, not where we have come from or where we are.”
