The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) recently wrote to the Kenya Urban Road Authority (KURA) over a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) advertisement by the latter that it deemed exclusionary and unfair to local players.
In the letter addressed to KURA Director General Eng. Silas Kinoti and copied to Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen as well as Principal Secretary Eng. Joseph Mbugua, AAK President Florence Nyole noted that REOI published in Government newspaper MyGov specifically stated “The bidder and all other parties constituting the bidder shall have the nationality of the Republic of China.”
“It is disconcerting that such exclusionary criterion can be given in a Kenyan procurement process 60 years post-independence and against the very values that the Kenyan Constitution upholds”, read a section of the letter.
The contested REOI pertains to the design and build of the Nairobi Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and Junction Improvement Project. In its advertisement, KURA announced that the Government of Kenya had received an intent of financing from China’s EXIM Bank and intended to use a portion of this money towards this project.
In her letter, Arch. Nyole reminded KURA: “The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations 2020 stresses on the transfer of technology, skills and knowledge through training, mentoring and participation of Kenyan citizens, where 75% of the employment opportunities must be reserved for Kenyans for works, consultancy services and non-consultancy services, of which not less that 20% shall be reserved for Kenyan professionals at management level.”
She called for KURA to withdraw the REOI and reissue “only after adhering to the established legal frameworks and upholding the principals of local content and inclusivity”.
