The court had been told that if the settlement of the dispute through the alternative dispute resolution would not be reached, PPRA proceedings could have helped to resolve the case.
Through their lawyers, KPA and Southern Engineering Company Ltd (Seco), the respondents in the case, had opposed Mr Omtatah’s application arguing that he was fishing for evidence to support his petition.
Justice Mativo directed KPA and Seco to file their responses within the next seven days and Mr Omtatah to file a supplementary affidavit if need be together with submissions.
A court has declined to refer a petition challenging Kenya Ports Authority‘s tender for the proposed construction of Shimoni fish port in Kwale won by Southern Engineering Company Ltd, to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).
Instead, Justice John Mativo of the High Court in Mombasa directed that the petition filed by activist Okiya Omtatah will be heard.
Mr Omtatah had made an application to have the case referred to the PPRA as an alternative means to resolve the dispute.
The court had been told that if the settlement of the dispute through the alternative dispute resolution would not be reached, PPRA proceedings could have helped to resolve the case.
Through their lawyers, KPA and Southern Engineering Company Ltd (Seco), the respondents in the case, had opposed Mr Omtatah’s application arguing that he was fishing for evidence to support his petition.
Justice Mativo directed KPA and Seco to file their responses within the next seven days and Mr Omtatah to file a supplementary affidavit if need be together with submissions.
In his petition, Mr Omtatah has challenged KPA’s award of the multi-million tender for the proposed construction of Shimoni Fish Port in Kwale county phase one to Seco.
He argues that there is a conflict of interest since Seco were the consultants who conducted both bathymetric and geotechnical surveys of the project, effectively participating in preparation of bid documents and then participated in the tender and won.
The activist says that KPA pre-qualified eight companies to bid for the construction of the Shimoni Fish Port in Kwale county phase one before issuing them with documents for the tender.
The tender, Mr Omtatah says, was opened in December last year and on March 24 KPA announced it had awarded it to Seco. According to the activist, Seco was not the lowest evaluated bidder and the award cost Sh2.6 billion higher than Sh1.7 billion budgetary allocation KPA had provided for the construction of the project.
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