Last year, the government hired 1,200 police vehicles as a way of cutting high costs incurred through direct purchase and maintenance. Photo/FILE
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said the money will also be used to lease at least five helicopters in efforts to enhance security operations in the country.
The ministry will soon kick off the bidding process for interested companies once the Budget is presented in Parliament next month.
“The biggest challenge that we have had in transport is maintenance. You will find that when a vehicle is taken for service, no service delivery happens. But in this leasing arrangement, there is no time we will be out of operation because when a vehicle goes for service, the leasing company provides another to fill the gap,” Rotich said.
Last year, the government hired 1,200 police vehicles as a way of cutting high costs incurred through direct purchase and maintenance.
“You find that you spend even three times the leasing cost, to go and do a simple repair,” Rotich said, ” If we had to do direct purchases and maintain these vehicles, most of them end up being parked because of the inability to service them.”
The Treasury has also set aside another Sh3 billion for leasing Medical Equipment for at least 94 hospitals spread across all counties.
“We are going to assist county governments to lease medical equipment like MRI equipment and scanning machines,” the CS added.
Rotich made the announcement while officially opening a two-day Leasing Convention 2014 at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Nairobi.
The government targets to not only reduce expenditure but also participate in promoting the leasing industry in Kenya, “which is still very low”.
“In the past the government has not been active in this leasing business. But now we will even encourage parastatals to follow suit. As we talk of Sh100 billion leasing business, some international markets are at about $100billion (Sh8.7trillion).”
