Mudavadi wants CS Yatani, Macharia queried on SGR project after ruling that the project violated the law

Amani National Congress Party Leader Musalia Mudavadi now wants Treasury Ukur Yattani and Transport CS James Macharia to clear the air on claims that the SGR flauted procurement laws.

Mudavadi who acknowledged that the SGR project is one of the largest single investments Kenya has made up to date, said the value of the project should be felt in the lives of the Kenyan people and the economy of the region at large.

Citing the Friday ruling by the appellate court the ANC Leader now wants the two cabinet secretaries to furnish Kenyans with the true picture of what transpired since the project funded by the tax payers.

“The fundamental question that we ask is that if so much money has been spent through a process that has been found to have been riddled with illegalities what does that mean for the money that has already been spent by the Kenyan people. The other thing that we want to know is that clearly some of these resources are borrowed funds or funds through which the tax payer in Kenya will have to make payments.“ said Musalia.

Mudavadi says the pronouncement by the Court of Appeal now puts Kenya at cross roads with the international donor communities and in particular China one of the key financiers of the SGR project.

“The 2 CSs should also explain how this play out with our international friends. What does this pay out with our International friends, what does this mean for a very important player the government of China if the pronouncement by the court say there were illegalities. How will this pronouncement play out in the broader debt profile that is hurting the Kenyan people and how will it impact on the possible discussions that require rescheduling and restructuring of the Kenyan debt.” said Mudavadi.

On Friday, Justices Martha Koome, Gatembu Kairu and Jamila Mohamed set aside the part of the judgment of the High Court that held that the procurement of the SGR was exempt from the provisions of a section of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005.

“We substitute therefore an order declaring that Kenya Railways Corporation, as the procuring entity, failed to comply with, and violated provisions of Article 227 (1) of the Constitution and Sections 6 (1) and 29, of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 59 2005 in the procurement of the SGR project. The appeals succeed to that extent only,” the ruling reads.

The appellants in the case–Okiya Omtatah and Wycliffe Gisebe Nyakina–had argued that there was no due diligence or independent feasibility conducted and that the design of the project was undertaken before seeking contractors to implement it.

Further, Omtatah and Gisebe alleged that that there was a conflict of interest in the Government contracting the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to implement the project whose feasibility study and design it had carried out for free.

“….that in any event CRBC was ineligible for the award of the contract as it had been blacklisted by the World Bank for engaging in corruption in a road project in the Philippines,” court papers read.

They insisted that the Ksh. 327billion project should have been procured through competitive bidding.