Uhuru wants firms using courts to delay projects blacklisted

The government will blacklist companies that perpetually use the courts to delay projects, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday.

Mr Kenyatta warned that suppliers would in particular not be allowed to delay the rollout of the digital learning project which was severally awarded to Moi University and JKUAT consortiums.

“We must move away from a vendor-driven society. Kenyans are interested in affordable and efficient services,” said Mr Kenyatta in a statement through the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU).

Currently, there are numerous court cases where unsuccessful suppliers have challenged the outcomes of tendering. The president spoke at State House when he received the 2016 World Bank’s World Development Report which focuses on benefits of the digital revolution.

The report was launched in Nairobi on Tuesday at a function called by the bank and technology promoter iHub.

“Unnecessary completion by vendors has to stop if the country is to move forward and achieve its development targets,” Mr Kenyatta said.

He said many more government programmes including e-procurement, the extension of the police command and control centre outside Nairobi and Mombasa, and the privatisation of Terminal Two at Mombasa port have been slowed down by vendor-driven court battles.

“Vendors fighting one another or with the regulators only tend to protect business monopolies but have no interest of the country at heart. It is clear that the digital migration has paid dividends by opening up space for more radio and TV stations,” the President said.

Diarietou Gaye, the World Bank Country Director for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Eritrea, presented the World Bank report to Mr Kenyatta.

The report analyses the transformational impact of the Internet, mobile phones and other related gadgets that gather, store and share information digitally.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said a new policy was being developed to ensure e-services are embraced to improve transparency in government agencies.

The report, which focuses on digital revolution, says Kenya leads the six countries surveyed for usage of the Internet in both manufacturing and service industries.

The share of manufacturing and service firms using the Internet was 73 per cent in Kenya compared to 22 per cent in Tanzania with the other four countries — Uganda, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana — scoring in between.

The survey was done on firms with at least five employees.

Of manufacturing firms in Kenya, 41 per cent used the Internet to manage their inventories compared to 27 per cent in Zambia and only six per cent in Uganda.

Zambia had generally higher adoption of Internet technology after Kenya, as 25 per cent of manufacturing companies sold their products online and also used the Internet for marketing.