Court stops delivery of Sh2.5b cranes

The High Court has stopped an Irish company from delivering three ship-to-shore gantry cranes worth Sh2.5 billion to Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

Justice Said Chitembwe restrained the manufacturer of the cranes, Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd, from delivering the cranes to KPA pending hearing of the suit on July 26, this year.

In the suit, Mombasa businessman Maur Bwanamaka, a local agent for Kocks Krane GMBH of Germany that participated in the tendering process in 2013, has claimed the cranes were assembled at Cormaco shipyard in Mombasa instead of Ireland as specified in the tender.

The Public Procurement Oversight Authority and KPA are named as first and second respondents in the suit papers.

Other respondents are the Kenya Revenue Authority, Commission on Administrative Justice, Competition Authority of Kenya, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Director of Public Prosecutions, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Transport Principal Secretary, Interior Principal Secretary, Parliamentary Public Investment Committee, Transparency International, Law Society of Kenya, Presidential Delivery Unit and the Attorney General.

Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd and Federal Supplies Agencies Ltd, which is associated with Mr Bwanamaka, were listed as first and second interested parties.

"The first interested party be and is hereby restrained from delivering the cranes to the second respondent if the cranes have not been delivered," ruled Justice Chitembwe on Monday.