Senate wants Investments, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya to shed light on questionable importation of multi-billion shilling rice by the government through Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) after claims it was marred by irregularities.
A request for statement filed in the Senate by Marsabit Senator Mohamed Chute, wants the Trade, Industrialization, and Tourism Committee of the Senate to interrogate CS Mvurya over the quantity and price per kilogramme of all the consignment imported through KNTC, a state corporation, from 2020 to date.
In doing so, Senator Chute wants the CS to clarify whether the state corporation flouted competitive tenders as required by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPADA) for the supply of the rice during the period and if so, disclose the companies that applied for the tenders and their respective bid amounts.
“The committee should disclose the names of companies that were awarded the contracts for the supply of rice, indicating the respective quantities delivered by the companies so far vis-a-vis what they were contracted to deliver,” says Senator Chute.
The petition by Senator Chute comes as KNTC is embroiled in the Sh6.5 billion edible oil scandal irregularly imported that has since seen Managing Director Pamela Mutua among other senior officers at KNTC sacked and arraigned.
Already the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are investigating KNTC top brass over irregular tendering in the supply of rice, beans, and cooking oil among other food items.
However, the individuals in the political and the business class claimed to have influenced the dishing out of the lucrative KNTC tenders, have not been touched.
A gazette notice by the immediate former National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u of December 22, 2022, opened the door for the importation of various food commodities, among them rice.
The Cabinet Secretary directed the importation of 600,000 tons of milled rice and another 150,000 tons of rice duty-free from February 1, 2023, to August 6, 2023.
The supplies were meant to cushion at least 1.5 million Kenyans from starvation caused by the drought that was at the time ravaging the country and also help subsidize food production in the country as promised by President William Ruto in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto.
KNTC was tasked with the importation and distribution of essential commodities to stabilise local prices, but reports from the Office of the Auditor-General revealed that procurement targets were not met as outlined in the law.
The details of the irregularities involve allegations of corruption and mismanagement, including the single sourcing of companies linked to senior government officials and individuals in the political and business class.
The irregularities in the procurement included a lack of competitive bidding, a standard procurement procedure, provided for under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, and that the contracts were simply dished out to favoured entities.
Documents before parliament show that following the importation directive from the government, in 2023, KNTC contracted various companies for the supply of food commodities including rice.
For instance, it contracted Multi Commerce FZC Sh8.12 billion to supply vegetable cooking oil (Jerry cans) and Indian white rice, Standard Petroleum Sh5.5 billion to supply rice, red kidney pinto beans, cooking fat, and fertilizer.
Makram Imports and Export Limited was contracted at Sh1.88 billion for the supply of Indian raw white rice with Nutrivine engaged for Sh187.5 million to supply other quantities of rice.
To get to the bottom of the irregularities in the importation of rice, the Senate wants CS Mvurya to provide a breakdown of all payments made by KNTC to suppliers of rice, so far, specifying the respective amounts received by the companies as well as their outstanding balances.
“The committee should specify the timelines for settlement of all outstanding balances,” says Senator Chute.
As the Trade committee investigates the matter, Migori Senator Eddy Oketch claimed that KNTC is becoming a place for serious corruption noting that Senator Chute’s request “should be escalated to forming a commission of inquiry or a special committee to investigate what is happening in the KNTC.”
“It cannot be that people who have overseen the pilferage of over Sh1 billion and then extended to over Sh6.5 billion are left in the office,” Senator Oketch said.
