Market News

Firearms board seeks Industrial Area offices

fire

Illegal firearms netted recovered in Turkana. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Firearms Licensing Board (FLB) is looking for premises in Nairobi’s Industrial Area for its offices.

A standalone property with 40 parking spaces, it says the property should have a five-year lease with 30 rooms to house the chairman, a boardroom and seven rooms for board members.

“The property should be at least 500 metres from any residential properties, served by a tarmac road and its perimeter fence should be backed by an electric fence,” says the tender document.

Bidders have until November 12 to apply.

The rent quoted should remain fixed during the term of the contract and the board says each tenderer must indicate their price schedules based on each unit’s cost and the total tender price.

The board is responsible for regulating, licensing and controlling the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, sale, repair, storage, possession and use of firearms, ammunition, air guns among other devices.

The board, which has been carrying out its tasks at the Police Pavilion in South C, is looking for its own premises where it establishes and maintains a digital registry of licensed firearm holders as well as issue biometric cards for gun holders.

The biometric cards have a microchip card containing details of a firearm holder replacing the age-old certificate introduced in the 1950s.

The firearm certificate has been grossly abused with some civilians ‘illegally’ licensed to possess military-type weapons while some unscrupulous individuals are forging them.

The new home will also help security agencies to trace every bullet cartridge to a specific gun thereby making it easy to identify who fired the shot.