According to World Bank’s latest report dubbed Africa Plus Report, Kenya’s economy is going to improve by five percent this year as a result of improved construction and ICT sectors and the continued roll out of COVID-19 vaccines.

The report indicates that the county’s economy is set to improve faster than Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth average of 3.5% this year.

This means that Kenya’s economy is set to rebound from 0.3 percent improvement in 2020 to 5.0 percent in 2021, and it is expected to grow at an average of 4.8 percent in 2022.

This positivity is attributed to the improvement s in the construction, education, information and communication and real estate sectors.

World Bank also said Kenya’s improvement in the economy would have been faster this year were it not for the third wave of COVID-19 fueled by the Delta variant.

The restrictions imposed hurt the external economy in Kenya which led to a decrease in the export of coffee, tea and roses which exerted pressure on the current account which led to a deficit.

This projection by the World Bank is different from that of the Treasury that had said Kenya’s economy would improve by 6 percent in the medium term caused by a turnaround in trade, increased agricultural output and the general improvement in world’s economy.

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Kakamega County Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has urged the National government to intervene and help his government get the new 1,000 liter per minute capacity oxygen plant which is being held by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) at Mombasa Port over taxes.

According to Oparanya, KRA is demanding a total of Sh 8 million in taxes from the contractor who is currently unable to pay the said amount.

Through a statement posted on his official social media accounts on Wednesday July 07, 2021, Oparanya appealed to the Ministry of Health and the National Treasury to assist and enable the plant to be cleared and installed.

He said the equipment should be released to help save lives of his people during this Covid-19 pandemic, urging the National government not to impose heavy taxes on equipment that are critical to save lives.

“I appeal to the @MOH_Kenya to assist and enable the plant be cleared at the Port and installed to save lives during this Covid-19 pandemic. I urge the Government not to impose heavy taxes on equipment that are critical to save lives,” Oparanya tweeted.

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A new row has emerged at the National Treasury following the award of a Sh647 million tender on 25 January 2020, to Kingsway Business Systems Ltd in consortium with Kobby Technologies, and Inplenion Eastern Africa Ltd, a firm associated with Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi.

The ADK led consortium filed a request for review at the PPARB on 8^th February 2021. The National Treasury compromised a party to the consortium to file for a notice of withdrawal.

The Faith Waigwa-led board having considered the notice of withdrawal ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the merits of the request for review.

It appears that the TNT designed a device to scuttle the review process by causing and pressuring a member of the consortium to file a withdrawal notice.

The review board suspended the review process claiming that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the merit of the case thus allowing treasury to get away with hiding that the Kingsway consortium does not meet the specialization criteria and the mandatory disqualifying criteria in the tender provisions.

The Oracle Kenya office, in response to the national Treasury in a letter dated 2^nd February 2020, and signed by the Country leader, Mr. Davis Bunei, does not categorically confirm the competency of Kingsway Consortium and only recognizes the Kingsway consortium partners as Resellers, without any service expertise, a mandatory requirement in the bid document.

The ADK led consortium in their appeal bases their claim for fraud on information available in the Oracle partner portal http://partner-finder.oracle.com/ , in which they assert that Kingsway and its consortium partners are not recognized as competent. The Lead Account Manager at Oracle, one David Ochieng confirms this very reference site, http://partner-finder.oracle.com/in an email response to Treasury on 15 Jan 2021, an email seeking to confirm the partner credentials of the Kingsway Consortium partners.

Exhibits supplied by treasury to the Review Board had conflicting due diligence dates and printout pages from the Oracle portal, Oracle had informed Treasury to locate whether the Kingsway consortium possessed the specialization.

Our paper followed the instructions provided by the exhibits provided by Treasury and after following the procedure to verify whether Kingsway consortium possessed the specialization affirmed the expertise page supported the claim that they did not have the specialization.

Instead, TNT was collaborating with the consortium to use as evidence of a solution page editable by Kingsway consortium as proof that had the specialization.

The ADK led consortium moved to the High Court seeking to nullify the award to the Kingsway led consortium for “The Provision of Onsite Support for IFMIS, an Oracle –based product”. The High court has since temporarily suspended the award to the consortium led by Kingsway Business Systems Ltd following a case filed by the rival Consortium ADK Technologies citing fraud in the tendering process.

According to records at Treasury Kingsway Business Systems Limited, listed directors include Simeon Ogendo, Seth Asuza Changilwa, Alfred Agoi Masadia and Beatrice Kosgei.

It is noteworthy that Kingsway Technologies was irregularly awarded another Tender TNT//025/2020-2021 on the 1^st February, 2021 for the Development of the Public Investment Management Information Systems Ltd (PIMIS), an award that was challenged by GIBB AFRICA LTD, which the board directed for re-evaluation of Bids, in what seems to be a real sham to give treasury the lee-way to re-evaluate and award Kingsway Systems Ltd in the customary unusual manner.

ADK led consortium through lawyer Duncan Kiprono wants the high court to compel the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board) PPARB) to review the case afresh on merits. He has listed PPARB as respondent while the PS National Treasury and Kingsway Business Systems are listed as interested parties.

On 6th March 2021, Justice Jairus Ngaah issued an order temporarily stopping the Treasury from awarding the contract. According to suit papers, ADK Consortium claims that Kingsway Business Systems Limited has been providing to the National Treasury with Group Personal Accident services for the last 10 years but not IT services.

ADK claims that in March 2020 Kingsway purchased an entry-level partnership from Oracle in what appears to be credential acquisitions in preparation for the tender.

“Based on the evaluations of Oracle Partner Finder’s website; Kingsway Consortium does not have the Customer references, the Implementation experience, the resources and the development skills and the know how to support the IFMIS Application and the extensive planning and budgeting application for Public Finance Management as required in the bid document,” ADK says.

ADK’s Project Manager, in their affidavit adds; “I verily believe that the procuring entity might have engaged in a flawed procurement process and acted against the laid down laws and procedures, to tilt the scales to enable them carry out a sham procurement process and act in breach of the provisions of law in order to favour Kingsway Business Systems.”

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