MPs push body to cancel controversial cranes contract

KENYA: MPs piled pressure on the country’s procurement chief to cancel a multibillion contract for the supply of cranes to the Kenya Ports Authority.

In a stormy meeting at Nairobi’s Protection House yesterday, in which an MP was kicked out, some of them questioned why the Director General of the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA), Mr Maurice Juma, failed to cancel the contract despite glaring breach of the procurement laws.

The chairman of the House Committee on Transport, Public Works and Roads, Maina Kamanda, told the PPOA boss to dispense with the Sh2.5 billion deal. Kamanda said the new berth at the Port of Mombasa was unused because of the flawed process that is subject of a court case.

Stephen Kinyanjui (Kinangop) was kicked out when he accused the PPOA boss of being “an interested party” and failed to prove his claims. When he was told to withdraw, Kinyanjui refused.

“You can kick me out, but I will not withdraw,” said Kinyanjui.

The vice chairman of the committee, Mahamud Maalim (Mandera West) who was presiding over the meeting ordered Kinyanjui out of the room.

MPs Emmanuel Wangwe (Navakholo), Stephen Ngare (Ndia), Simon Ogari (Bomachoge Chache), Omondi Anyanga (Nyatike) and Ahmed Abass (Ijara) insisted that the PPOA had to decide on the fate of the contract on the basis of its scathing report that the process was flawed.

“From this report it is very clear that the tendering procedures were flouted. It appears that the decision had already been made on who will get the contract even before the tender was awarded. By now you should have done two things: Cancelled the contract and notified the Ethics and anti-Corruption Commission,” the Ijara MP told the PPOA boss.

But the PPOA boss said one of the companies that had placed a bid to supply the cranes had gone to court to contest a decision of a subsidiary of the PPOA — the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board — and therefore any action on the contract is likely to be considered prejudicial.

— Stories by Alphonce Shiundu, Ally Jamah, Roseyne Obala and Cyrus Ombati