Statistics by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) show that the value of goods imported by State departments and parastatals has risen nearly five times in the past five years.
The State agencies spent Sh52.2 billion on imports in the January-November 2018 period, a massive jump compared to the same period five years earlier when they shipped in items worth Sh9.09 billion.
This increase is significant given that some of the items commonly imported by the State agencies include furniture, textile and paper products which can be manufactured locally to support equally qualified local suppliers.
Thousands of entrepreneurs in this country are keen on opportunities to manufacture such items and by extension create jobs for Kenyans, yet the State agencies still opted to source products worth billions of shillings from abroad. The patriotic thing to do would have been to promote local businesses under the government motto of ‘buy Kenya to build Kenya’.
The huge import bill also puts to doubt the government’s commitment to stimulate the manufacturing sector and create jobs. It also flies in the face of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on December 9, 2014 that ministries and parastatals should procure a bigger quota of goods produced locally under the ‘Buy Kenyan and Build Kenya’ initiative. At the time, the President set a 40 percent local content supplies quota for State agencies, a notable improvement from the 30 percent fixed by his predecessor, President Mwai Kibaki.
Accounting officers in the various ministries, State departments as well as parastatals should be made to answer for their defiance of the presidential directive. It cannot be business as usual when the country is desperate to create jobs through a more vibrant domestic manufacturing sector.
Some rogue officers have in the past taken advantage of loopholes in State procurement schemes to cut deals for importation of items such as furniture. In some cases, the items imported are of questionable quality, thus affecting the budgets and efficiency of State agencies through frequent import orders to replace the damaged ones.
This kind of wastage must be checked and the business given to entrepreneurs in this country and institutions like the Kenya Prisons Department which has in the past done a fantastic job making items like furniture.
The government should walk its talk of supporting entrepreneurs.
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