Companies

Two firms, JKUAT lock horns in Sh1bn laptops, tablets deal

JKUAT laptops

JKUAT school tablets.

Two foreign companies and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) are embroiled in a dispute over a Sh1 billion contract for laptops and tablets.

VGTS Company Ltd of Hong Kong and MPGIO Ltd of Korea have sued to challenge the decision of the Jkuat Industrial Park negotiated in a Zoom meeting in October last year.

The companies were to supply 13,105 laptops and 8,280 tablets as semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits for local assembly in Kenya, court documents show.

JKUAT was to pay $200 for each tablet and $615 for each laptop or a total of $9,715,575 (Sh1 billion).

The companies say a draft contract was issued on November 3, 2020 and signed before the expiry of the bid validity period.

They said that during the negotiations, Jkuat sought from them commercial and intellectual property information pertaining to the bid items, which included pictures of the SKDs and tablet covers with qwerty keyboards and a manufacturing and delivery schedule.

They said they gave out the confidential information in good faith, having been assured that a contract would be issued as their consortium was the successful bidder.

But a day after signing the contract on November 4, 2020, Jkuat Industrial Park Ltd cancelled the tender, citing its inadequate budgetary allocations, material governance issues and unforeseeable circumstances.

The firms want the court to overturn Jkuat’s decision. They sought orders barring the university from re-advertising or awarding the procurement tender to another company.

But Justice James Makau has declined the request, saying there are other alternative remedies to the dispute.

“The respondent, being an educational institution, is required to ensure the supply of electronic devices such as laptops to Kenyan students at affordable prices,” he ruled.

But the university denies engaging the firms in any tendering process, whether via a restricted tender or a request for quotation. JKUAT Industrial Park Ltd acting Managing Director Kibet Langat says the two companies are not on the list of their prequalified suppliers.