• Omtatah says the tender documents were altered to require professional indemnity of Sh1 billion, up from the initial Sh200 million. He believes the requirement is oppressive.
• He said the tender does not consider affirmative action under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities.
Image: FILE
Activist Okiya Omtatah has asked a court to stop the processing of Kenya Power and Lighting Company tender for insurance brokers because its terms will lock out local players.
Omtatah says the tender documents were altered to require professional indemnity of Sh1 billion, up from the initial Sh200 million. He believes the requirement is oppressive.
He said the tender does not consider affirmative action under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities.
AGPO gives women, youth and persons with a disability 30 per cent of all tenders without competition from established firms. The quota applies to all public procurement business opportunities.
In his suit papers, Omtatah urged the court to grant the orders he is seeking to ensure justice and equity.
He wants the court to give an order suspending the processing of KPLC’s tender for pre-qualification of insurance brokerage firms.
On June 8, KPLC through a media advert invited bids for tender for pre-qualification of insurance brokerage firms for September 1 to August 31 2023.
On July 15, KPLC wrote to all bidders notifying them that the procurement process had been terminated and the tender cancelled.
Five days later, another advert was placed for pre-qualification of insurance brokerage firms with a closing date of August 12.
The submitted bids were to be opened electronically in the presence of the bidders or their representatives who choose to attend in KPLC auditorium.
Omtatah says due to infighting in KPLC’s top management and the board over the tender, there was a delay in releasing the tender documents detailing the requirements.
Following scrutiny, Omtatah says, he discovered that some of the bidder eligibility requirements in the second tender document had been changed in an unlawful and discriminatory manner.
He found that a territorial limit within Kenya was expunged in the second tender document and local companies could be locked out.
Omtatah says the Sh1 billion indemnity is unreasonable because even the Insurance Regulatory Authority itself requires only a minimum limit of Sh10 million.
The activist says the requirements discriminate in favour of large firms.
“The decision to deny local insurance brokers a chance to earn a livelihood militates against their economic and social rights under article 43 of the Constitution, and the consumers of their rights of KPLC’s procurement services to the protection of their economic interest,” Omtatah said.
Since only multinationals are favoured by the requirements, he believes they have been put in place for improper motives of clearing local small scale insurance brokers from the market.
He argues that KPLC’s decision to operate outside the law is untenable and must be stopped by the court.
KPLC has yet to file its response as the case was filed on Wednesday. The matter is coming up for directions Thursday morning.