Shoddy feasibility studies, lack of a master plan, and an opaque tendering process have come back to haunt President William Ruto's Sh23.5 billion pet project of County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs), with senators calling for its cancellation.
The development comes after the lawmakers expressed concerns that the multi-billion projects could end up being white elephants unless glaring gaps in their implementation are addressed.
The Senate Trade, Industrialisation and Tourism committee poked holes into the project being implemented between the national and county governments, where each is contributing Sh11.75 billion.
Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi wondered how the project was commenced with serious gaps in planning, procurement, and land ownership with billions of Kenyan shillings at stake.
The legislator said it is worrying that the projects commenced without a master plan and feasibility studies, as well as inadequate funds, further raising eyebrows.
“We cannot have a project of this magnitude being commenced without a master plan and feasibility studies, only to start looking for them in the middle of the process,” said Mr Osotsi.
“I am concerned because we are only having one financial year left before the elections and nothing is moving, and the projects may just end up as white elephants where billions are pumped in but little is achieved,” he added.
He pointed out that the project is already facing underfunding to the tune of Sh4.35 billion due to intermittent disbursement of funding by the two levels of government.
The ODM deputy party leader said that in the financial year ending June 2024, for instance, only Sh1.15 billion was disbursed against the budget of Sh4.5 billion.
In the fiscal year ending June 2025, the budget was Sh2 billion, but only Sh1 billion was disbursed, with the second and third phases facing budget cuts.
“There seems to be a lot of problems with this project. We are concerned about what the government intended with the project because there has been half-hearted disbursement of funds or delays in doing the same,” said Senator Osotsi.
“There are a lot of questions to be answered because there are some counties that have received the Sh250 million but have done nothing. They include Nakuru, Trans Nzoia, Siaya, Murang’a, Nandi, Mombasa, and Kiambu,” he added.
On land ownership, the lawmaker said most of the projects are being rolled out on land that is not owned by the counties.
The senator also questioned the exclusion of counties in the procurement process, claiming that some companies awarded the tenders to implement the projects are owned by powerful people in the government, and that is why they are operating opaquely.
“Who did the procurement, companies awarded the tenders, and why counties were not involved in the process.
People were awarded the contracts in the most opaque manner. We want a list of all the companies awarded the tenders and the CR12 for us to know the faces behind the firms because it is said the companies are owned by very powerful people in the government,” said Mr Osotsi.
Kiambu senator Karungo Thang’wa did not mince his words, saying the projects should be halted until a master plan is ready and feasibility studies are conducted.
He argued that the project was introduced to arm-twist counties into undertaking which are not their priorities, hence the shoddy implementation.
“We need serious public participation on the projects because I think many of these projects will not benefit the people. Some are just walls put together,” said Mr Thang’wa.
Senator Osotsi echoed his counterpart’s idea, saying the 13 counties that have rolled out the projects to be treated as pilot projects and halt any expansion to the remaining 34 counties until everything is ready.
He said the project's risk of running into headwinds should they proceed while still missing the critical links identified.
“What we are having now is a complete opposite of what was conceptualised. It appears the projects were hurried to make a kill and not to benefit the people they were intended to benefit,” said nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri.
Appearing before the committee chaired by Kwale Senator Issa Juma on Tuesday, Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui insisted that the project is a game changer with a good intention and the challenges will be fixed.
He said five projects should be ready by the end of July, and investors’ interest is already overwhelming, especially for those in Nairobi, Kajiado, Kiambu, Kwale, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Kisumu.
“Every project will have its skeptics, but once it is complete, people will want to own the success,” CS Kinyanjui said.
CS Kinyanjui pointed out that they are working on the master plans for all the counties but explained that land issues were to be sorted out by the counties by obtaining necessary legal instruments to clear any ownership disputes in the future.
“The objective was right, but in the process, a few missteps were made. We have learnt our lessons and we are correcting them,” he said.
The former Nakuru governor, however, admitted that little attention was given to supervision of the projects, saying some five percent of the funds should have been set aside to cater for supervision and audit of the projects.
“That is the standard practice, but unfortunately, this was not done in this case. If you have zero funds for supervision, then the project will face headwinds,” he said.
On the question of delayed disbursements, the CS said the national government cannot disburse the funds equally because it is based on equal co-disbursement, and the delays have been caused by most counties not meeting their end of the bargain.
He admitted that the project was silent on when counties were supposed to remit their share to the projects.
“These are areas we want to streamline as we go into the second phase,” he said.
