Agriculture secretary Felix Kosgey (left) and KMC acting managing director James Tendwa during the launch of the Kenya Semi-Arid Livestock Enhancement Support project at the parastatal’s Athi River plant in November. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
KMC chairman Taraiya ole Kores has differed with acting managing director James Tendwa over the issuance of tenders meant for construction of abattoirs and modernisation of the Athi River plant.
In a letter, the chairman accuses Mr Tendwa of interfering with the procurement of the facilities at the State-owned firm and calls for his suspension.
Plans by the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) to revamp its facilities and set up abattoirs have hit fresh hurdles after a tender dispute erupted at the board of the cash-strapped parastatal.
Documents seen by the Business Daily indicate that KMC chairman Taraiya ole Kores has differed with acting managing director James Tendwa over the issuance of tenders meant for construction of abattoirs and modernisation of the Athi River plant.
In a letter, the chairman accuses Mr Tendwa of interfering with the procurement of the facilities at the State-owned firm and calls for his suspension.
“Information in my possession indicates that you have been interfering with the tenders, among other things, you visited the tender processing committee on December 11, 2014 at Machakos University College,” Mr Kores alleges in a letter.
“You stayed there most of the day with the aim of influencing the outcome of the valuation process in favour of one bidder.”
The parastatal plans to set up abattoirs in all the 47 counties to firm up its control of the domestic market where it faces stiff competition from private operators.
The abattoirs are particularly important as KMC begins to roll out its livestock offtake drive funded by the United Nations Development Progamme.
Mr Kores accuses the acting managing director of holding a meeting with the tender committee on December 13 and 15 last year where he tried to “entice the members of the tender processing committee with some offers”.
The tenders issued so far are numbered KMC/INT/02/2014-2015 and KMC/INT/03/2014-2015.
Efforts to reach Mr Tendwa on phone were unsuccessful as he did not respond to the phone call by press time.
The move is likely to stall the revival efforts initiated by the State after it pumped in close to Sh1 billion for debt clearance and upgrading of the aging plant.
Livestock PS Fred Sigor said it was too early to speculate the outcome of the tender issued because the process was still on.
“There are no big issues here, the tendering procedure is still on and let us wait for the outcome before making any conclusion,” said Prof Sigor on phone.
Sources within KMC said Mr Tendwa was last week summoned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to record the statement on the matter.
KMC is not new to boardroom wars. In October 2013, the Industrial Court committed Mr Tendwa to a jail term of three months or a fine of Sh2 million.
This saw the acting managing director serve two days at the Industrial Area GK Prison before the cash-strapped firm deposited the Sh2 million to bail him out.
KMC reopened in 2006 after a 15-year shutdown with the government injecting billions of shillings into the plant, including paying National Bank Sh5.2 billion it had guaranteed the factory.
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