EDITORIAL: Parliament, EACC should probe claims of aircraft price inflation

What you need to know:

Mr Budd argues that Kenya could lose more than Sh20.6 billion if the intended Sh43 billion arms purchase deal goes ahead as proposed.
He says that L3 Technologies, the designated supplier of the 12 armed aircraft intended for use in Somalia against the Al-Shabaab, is not an original manufacturer.
Whether the Congressman is telling the truth or not should be a matter of investigation by Kenya’s Parliament and the anti-corruption agencies.

The Ministry of Defence must take seriously warnings about price inflation for the proposed arms purchase deal between Kenya and a US company. It could as well be that US Congressman Ted Budd, who has openly voiced his opposition to the deal, is seeking political mileage given that the alternative supplier he is suggesting is based in a part of North Carolina – the district he represents in Congress.

But he is nevertheless raising weighty matters that cannot just be wished away. In his petition, which is supported by Four Republican members of the US Congress, Mr Budd argues that Kenya could lose more than Sh20.6 billion if the intended Sh43 billion arms purchase deal goes ahead as proposed. This is a colossal amount by any measure. To lose it in just one transaction would be a big mockery of Kenyan taxpayers. What is unsettling is that the US Congressman is revealing a pattern of tendering that is commonly used by Kenya’s infamous tenderpreneurs to fleece the public.

Mr Budd says that L3 Technologies, the designated supplier of the 12 armed aircraft intended for use in Somalia against the Al-Shabaab, is not an original manufacturer. That would suggest that L3 Technologies is just a middle man that is seeking to scheme a fat commission from supply of the aircraft to the Kenyan government. By sourcing the equipment directly from the manufacturer, the Kenyan taxpayers could save a whopping Sh20 billion, according to Mr Budd. Whether the Congressman is telling the truth or not should be a matter of investigation by Kenya’s Parliament and the anti-corruption agencies. It would, however, not be unusual that some procurement officials have colluded with L3 Technologies to steal from taxpayers.

For far too long Kenyan taxpayers have paid a heavy price to unscrupulous contractors who are protected by laws that make tendering by security agencies a top secret that is not open for public bidding. The multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing scandal is just one example of the schemes used to fleece public coffers. Yet there is nothing so secretive about the arms purchases, other than acting as a cover for corruption by self-serving bureaucrats.
The red flag raised by the US lawmaker should therefore serve as a call to Parliament’s Security Committee to move with speed and investigate the purchase.