Fresh bid to stop Sh327b SGR project

Kenya: An Italian firm wants the High Court to stop the construction of the Sh327 billion Standard Gauge Railway.

In its fresh application, Team Engineering SPA wants the decision of the Public Procurement Oversight Review Board, which threw out its application for review, overturned.

"The decision and ruling of the board on June 6 this year is irrational and unreasonable as it makes findings that are so outrageous in defiance of logic or accepted evidence standards that any sensible person could not arrive at such a decision," the suit paper read in part.

In a sworn affidavit by Lamberto Menegatti, the company said the board erred in law and fact by holding that it was an uncontested fact that the parties had agreed on email as the mode of communication.

The company added that the board in its decision deliberately disregarded weighty evidence and submissions they had tabled before it (board).

"The board failed to take into account relevant facts, ignored inconsistencies and contradicted its own precedence," the firm said. Team Engineering had sought the board to nullify the decision of the KR tender committee to award the work to a Chinese firm.