Second parliamentary committee grills KPC over tender

NAIROBI, KENYA: The management of Kenya Pipeline Company appeared before a second parliamentary committee on Wednesday to be questioned on the 43 billion shillings tender awarded to a Lebanese firm.

KPC top bosses led by CEO Charles Tanui appeared before the Jamlek Kamau led departmental committee on Energy, Information and Communications to explain their decision to pick Zakhem International ltd for the construction of Mombasa Nairobi pipeline.

This was only a day after the same team appeared before the watchdog Public Investment Committee (PIC) and defended their decision saying it was above board.

Both committees are seeking answers as to whether deal was above board only days after the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) Review Board gave contract a clean bill of health.

During yesterday's session MPs Nicholas Gumbo (Rarieda), Junet Mohamed (Suna east), Roba Duba (Moyale) and Richard Tong'i (Nyaribari chache) took the KPC managers to whether they had carried out due diligence on Zakihem before awarding the tender.

"The claims of impropriety came up several times and the matter was canvased at the PPOA review board which found that there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations," KPC legal officer Gloria Khafafa said over claims that Zakhem had been blacklisted in Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia over fraud.

Junet also wanted to know if Zakhem international construction was the same firm that did the 1972 project of the current pipeline which is being replaced saying there is a possibility the firm may be a Kenyan firm. He also wanted KPC to confirm if the firm had carried any other works in the country apart from the 1970s.

MD Tanui said contrary to the claims, Zakhem also successfully constructed the current Nairobi-Eldoret in 1992 insisting that Lebanese company scooped the tender after emerging top following an evaluation process.