President Uhuru has issued a warning to procurement officers who fail to pay youths on time, consequently crippling their businesses.

Uhuru, who was speaking yesterday at the State House Youth Summit 2016 said that the treasury must ensure that suppliers are paid. They must not simply content themselves with the knowledge that they have released funds to the ministries.

The president further asked Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to sack officers who have delayed payments to youth, women and disabled government suppliers.

“The access to Government Opportunities for the youth is a law; it is no longer a policy. It is not an issue of ‘I will when I want, or I won’t when I want,” Uhuru said.

According to President Uhuru, any official who will be named in the yet-to-be-released ‘list of shame’ by the joint parliamentary committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity will also be sacked.

Uhuru was responding to complaints by young people over failure to implement Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) and the Public Procurement and Disposal law.

In 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta, pledged that the procurement rules would be amended to allow 30 per cent of contracts (up from the 10% set by retired president Mwai Kibaki in 2012) to be given to the youth, women and persons with disability without competition from established firms.