Supreme Court halts construction of second grain bulk handling facility

Some of the silos for handling cereals at the Grain Bulk Handlers Limited, July 20, 2018. [File, Standard]

The Supreme Court has halted the construction of a second grain bulk handling facility at the Port of Mombasa after declaring the tender awarded by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to Portside Freight Terminals Limited illegal and unconstitutional.

A five-bench of Supreme Court judges led by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, and Justices Mohammed Ibrahim, Isaac Lenaola, William Ouko, and Smokin Wanjala, ruled that the  Court of Appeal erred in upholding the use of the Specially Permitted Procurement Procedure under Section 144A of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPAD Act), 2015.