By WINSLEY MASESE

NAIROBI, KENYA: At every ground-breaking ceremony of a Chinese-backed project in Kenya, the dragon dance is part of the entertainment. Sneaking its way among the guests, it has become a familiar scene just like their projects.  The onslaught of the Chinese in Kenya is worrying, especially to local contractors who remain sidelined. From railway lines, airports, port, to superhighways, now Chinese companies control a chunk of the projects.

Companies from the Asian economic giant have emerged favourites in winning every mega government project, as local contractors lick tasteless fingers. Last week, Central Organisation Trade Union Secretary General Francis Atwoli expressed displeasure at the rate in which Chinese contractors are edging out local contractors. Atwoli pointed the case of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which he said has awarded contracts to a Chinese company.

“Why are Kenyan-owned construction firms not winning tenders like that of NSSF and instead only Chinese companies are the sole winners?” he asked.

Atwoli counted Embakasi phase five and six, Hazina Towers, Tasia project with a combined cost of over Sh10 billion to have gone to the Chinese contractors.

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So disadvantaged are Kenyan contractors, as the financing element in these projects such as the controversial Mombasa-Malaba high-speed standard gauge railway line would favour Chinese companies.

Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau told a parliamentary committee last year that they have no option expect to award Chinese contractors.

He said that part of the reason is that procurement allows that they follow the procurement price of the lender, even when the government contributes a given percentage of the total project cost. “Those are the regulations that we follow even with the European Union.”

He said that they have to evaluate the tender before informing the financier on the completion of the process. “We ask if there is a complaint. It sounds queer but that is how we do it.”

Though the Government has to finance about 15 per cent of the required capital and the rest by a Chinese bank, it is still a long walk to financial freedom for Kenyan contractors.

Intriguingly though, the Thika super highway was funded by the African Development Bank and the government of Kenya but executed by Chinese firms. A contractor who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing that he would lose tenders in case he is revealed said that the arrangement where China is becoming the financier and contractor is likely to kill the local industry despite the high reputation Kenyan engineers have out there.

“Ultimately, local contractors will have little to smile about as we are viewed with suspicion on our ability to undertake mega projects,” he said. However, he agrees that the past, where a number of contractors were synonymous with shoddy jobs might be haunting them.

However, he says giving kickbacks to government officials in order to win tenders was the cause behind that, as they had nothing to lose by poor workmanship.

“If a good part of the project cost was used to give freebies to government officers, we had to recover that by spending less on the project hence poor workmanship,” he noted.

In the past, the former ministry of Public Works, in charge of the projects defended its decision to award the tenders to foreign companies, arguing that Kenyan contractors did shoddy work.

In its then website, the ministry, argued, “Local contractors have been associated with shoddy works that has left many lives dead in the country and resources destroyed. The Government has also been trying to clear a mountain of pending bills created by contractors who never finished projects for a variety of reasons, including shoddy workmanship.”

 “Unless the above challenges are mitigated, the construction industry will be incapable of efficiently executing the large scale projects anticipated within the Vision 2030 and other projects within the region economic blocs”, stated a statement on MoPW website.

It also noted that the construction sector is “fragmented and lacks in scale, skills and organisational capacity to undertake major projects.” It further noted that the industry is unable to exploit construction opportunities in the expanding regional markets.

“Significantly with major local roads and railway concessionary agreements proposed or undertaken, the local industry remains a passive spectator in such public – private partnerships as foreign concerns make forays into the local turf,” the ministry warned.

The glimmer of hope is however the formation of the National Construction Authority, which seeks to streamline and regulate the sector, that has been dominated by quacks for a long time.

Through the Construction Bill 2011, the efforts also aim at weeding out quacks who have dominated the sector and soiling the reputation of other companies. It’s estimated a quarter of the country’s construction companies are not genuine.

To ensure that there is professionalism in the industry, the authority also demands that one of the technical directors in any construction company must have the minimum technical qualification relevant to construction.

The National Construction Corporation, replaced by the National Construction Authority, enabled indigenous contractors to successfully execute a number of major projects including Kenya Air Force airfield in Nanyuki, and Kenyatta National Hospital Teaching complex. Others include Milimani Commercial Courts, Afya House, Kilimo House, Transcom House and Kileleshwa Pool Housing among others.  However, its collapse created a lacuna into which many local construction firms collapsed, were de-registered or downgraded in category of registration.