Inquiry into allegations of procurement irregularities in the award of tender for the rehabilitation and upgrading of Kerenga Airtstrip in Kericho which was allocated KSHs 100 million by the County Government of Kericho.

The Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) commenced investigations following allegations that the requirements for the tender for the rehabilitation of Kerenga Airstrip were altered to include a condition that bidders were to have National Construction Authority 2 and National Construction Authority (NCA 2&3) registration certificates, which was a ploy to favour a particular bidder and lock out the rest.

Kericho Kerenga Airstrip tender irregularities investigated by EACC

Investigations established that it was a requirement that bidders were to include NCA 3 certificate only and not NCA 2 certificate. Investigations revealed that the winning bidder submitted fake documents in its bid thereby breaching the procurement law and that all the Evaluation Committee members failed to undertake a proper due diligence and therefore providing misleading information to the procuring entity.

On 29th April, 2021, a report was compiled and forwarded to the DPP with recommendations to charge the Directors of the Company and the Company, as well as members of the Tender Evaluation Committee with the following offences:

• 1 count of fraudulent practice in procurement proceedings contrary to Section 66 (1) as read with Section 177 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 (PPADA, 2015);

• 4 counts of forgery contrary to Section 345 as read with Section 349 of the Penal Code;

• 1 count of deceiving the principal contrary to Section 41 (2) of ACECA ;

• 1 count of collusive practices on evaluation contrary to Section 66 (1) and (2) as read with Section 177 (a) of the PPADA, 2015.

On 21st June, 2021, the DPP returned the inquiry file for further investigations.
Source: Kenya Gazette 27 August, 2021.