Kenyan youth, women and persons with disability only took up 30 percent of Kenya Power tenders set aside for the group, highlighting high levels of apathy.
The State power distributor disclosed that of the Sh1.6 billion worth of contracts reserved for women, youth and PWD-owned enterprises in the financial year ended June 2022, the group took deals worth only Sh480 million.
“The low uptake is due to reasons ranging from lack of duly registered and compliant business enterprises, low understanding of the e-procurement system and failure to ensure that the goods targeted for procurement meet the requisite acceptance tests,” said the utility’s General Manager for Supply Chain, John Ngeno.
Kenya Power, like all other State-owned entities, is required to reserve 30 percent of its annual procurement budget for youth, women and persons living with disabilities under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme.
Dr Ngeno said the firm would roll out pre-bid conferences targeting the group to rise awareness on the tendering processes in order to boost participation.
The Public Procurement and Disposal Act requires all public entities to submit reports to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) every six months.
State-owned entities are grappling with a few enterprises owned by youth, women and persons with disabilities seeking to do business with the government. For instance, in the 2020/2021 financial year, ministries, departments and agencies fell short by Sh10.7 billion in their target of issuing at least a third of their tenders under AGPO.
