Tough questions Uhuru must ask over laptops

Parliamentary Education Committee member Jared Opiyo (Awendo) addressing journalists Wednesday. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

By Standard Team

Kenya: The cancellation of the laptops for schools tender over glaring malpractice shifted focus to President Kenyatta and what he might do to address the biggest tender scandal to rock his administration.

The drastic decision to block Indian-owned Olive International from supplying the computers at the heart of Jubilee’s election promises, and the fact that it is being barred from participating in the re-tendering process, has also raised questions on what could happen to Education Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi.

The CS was, by virtue of his Cabinet portfolio at the centre of the delivery of what could fulfill one of Uhuru’s most valued yet controversial promises to Kenyan children, and throughout maintained the process was above board.

Kaimenyi alongside his Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang must have been in shock when the appeals board disqualified the Olive tender, citing serious malpractice including leakage of the tender specifications and manipulation of documents.

Despite the two assuring the country that the tender was above board, and even appearing before the relevant parliamentary committee to defend their position, it turned out the firm did not have the financial capacity to be entrusted with the Sh24 billion tender, and worse still, didn’t qualify because it wasn’t a device manufacturer as demanded by the tender advertisement.

The depth of the country’s shock at the way a tender so close to the heart of the Jubilee Government was possibly tainted by Kenya’s shadowy tender contract manipulators, was discernible from a demand by the Parliamentary Education Committee yesterday, calling for Kaimenyi to quit or face censure.

Yesterday, sources told The Standard that Kaimenyi chaired a crisis meeting with his officers at Jogoo House in the wake of the damning verdict by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

Sources familiar with the meeting revealed that the ministry was taken aback by the Wednesday ruling.

The ministry’s top leadership, sources said, may take “firm steps” after receiving the report from the board.

Meanwhile, Kaimenyi yesterday said the ministry would comply with the board’s verdict. “The government has a way in which things must work and we shall surely comply with their recommendation,” he said.

The MPs accused him of avoiding appearing before the committee, saying that when he finally showed up he was arrogant, giving assurances that have now been proven misleading by the tender appeals board, which listened to a petition by two losers from the first round of bidding.

Unsustainable wage bill

But it is to the President, who is balancing national budgetary consumption, brought on in part by the unsustainable wage bill, against a possible backlash from salary cuts and staff retrenchment, that attention has now turned to.

The President, who has conceded that there are corruption cartels in Government and alluded their removal is on the cards, is expected to pursue answers to six sets of questions springing from the tender cancellation.

They are:

??Who has the courage to try and ‘eat’ from the President’s pet project and what does this say about what else could be going on?

??Who owns Olive International, who are the company’s ‘friends’ in Government and were they also behind the theft of the Free Primary Education funds under former President Kibaki?

??Who gave Olive a more detailed brief and manipulated tender documents, and what action will be taken against them if they are unmasked, given that this is criminal act?

??Why did the Appeals Board define it as a crime and then fail to refer the tender manipulation to the anti-corruption agency for further action?

??Why did Kaimenyi and Belio insist that the tender was above board when it would later be revealed that there were glaring irregularities?

Though Kaimenyi and Belio may argue that they were communicating feedback from their subordinates, they will predictably face a multitude of questions because one is the top policy decision-maker and the other the chief accounting officer in the ministry.

PS Kipsang however steered clear of divulging any details of the process saying that he would not comment on the matter for now. “I have not even seen the report so how can I respond? Our hands are tied and we ask for patience as we interrogate the report and take action,” he said.

Behind the scenes, The Standard also established that there is anxiety among some senior officials who may have misled the top cadre of leadership “at any one time” during the procurement process.

“The ministry has not received the report from the review board. That will be delivered tomorrow (this morning). After that, the ministry’s top officials will decide what action to take,” explained the senior official who did not want to be quoted because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The official added: “This is a presidential project and if any person may have misled the ministry at any one time or stage during the process then the ministry shall make tough decisions.”  Independent sources within the ministerial tender committee revealed that the due diligence team that visited India and China will be summoned to give a thorough account of the information they gathered.

“Once we read the report, we shall see whether the review board made a good judgment or whether they erred at some point,” explained the official.