Uhuru’s Roadside Directive Haunts Taxpayers in Ksh934 Million Case

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Uhuru's Roadside Directive Haunts Taxpayers in Ksh934 Million Case
Uhuru's Roadside Directive Haunts Taxpayers in Ksh934 Million Case

Africa-PressKenya. A roadside directive issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2015 has now come back to haunt taxpayers, with a contractor now seeking nearly Ksh1 billion for breach of contract by a state agency.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) is facing a Ksh934 million claim for damages and unpaid fees from Relief and Mission Logistics contracted to provide transport services inside the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Uhuru angrily ordered the cancellation of the contract after learning that KAA was paying Ksh11 million per month for five buses that carried passengers at JKIA.

“This is unsustainable. The people behind it will have to be taken in, arraigned and made to return public funds,” Uhuru angrily reacted, during the opening of Terminal 2 at JKIA in 2015.

The directive has come to haunt Kenyan taxpayers with the contractor having already been awarded Ksh158 million by an independent arbitrator.

Allen Gichuhi, the sole arbitrator of the case, found no substantial argument in the cancellation of the contract by KAA in regard to the public interest as KAA had alleged.

The parastatal appealed the arbitration award from the company that had won its tender after beating 16 other firms.

The agency was set to recover the huge costs of operation incurred by the five buses from the 48 airlines that were operating at JKIA.

Relief and Mission Logistic, which had been in operation for seven months before the contract was canceled, told a parliamentary inquiry that it had not received any amount from an investment of Ksh300 million.

The solicitor General, Kennedy Ogeto, on the other hand, advised KAA in May to appeal in court.

“In view of the foregoing, we advise the KAA to file an application in the High Court to challenge the award of compound interest and to seek setting aside of the same as advised above,” stated Ogeto.

In response, the firm has asked the court to order the state agency to repay Ksh934 million for breach of contract.

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