Committee Chairman Maina Kamanda said his committee had decided to summon the legislator following allegations he has recently made regarding irregularities in the procurement of the tender/FILE
Committee Chairman Maina Kamanda said his committee had decided to summon the legislator following allegations he has recently made regarding irregularities in the procurement of the tender.
“We will also be interviewing our fellow MP, (Honourable Keter) he has been complaining that some issues were not done properly, so we want him to come and expound on this, so that once we give the report it will be all inclusive,” he said after a committee meeting at Continental House.
The House team has further they will also expect the Deputy President’s Chief of Staff Marianne Kitany and Infrastructure Principal Secretary Nduva Muli to appear when the committee begins its hearing next week on Thursday.
He said having served as a former Information Systems Manager and former Managing Director at Kenya Railways at the time when the procurement of the Sh220 billion project was going on, Kitany and Muli are best-placed to address the queries being raised about the tender.
Ahead of the launch, Kitany had written to Attorney General Githu Muigai seeking a legal seal of approval, in the face of mounting queries from the Public Procurement Oversight Authority.
The railway upgrade is controversial because of the huge cost which appears to be twice the international average price per kilometre, and because it was single sourced from a Chinese company.
Questions have been raised over the procuring process and the cost which jumped from Sh220 billion to Sh1.3 trillion.
The committee has also invited Transport Secretary Michael Kamau, his Finance counterpart Henry Rotich, Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) Director General and the of Kenya Railways Managing Director to get all the details regarding the contract.
The new stance by the committee contradicts remarks the Starehe MP made on Monday where he told Capital FM News that the committee’s report into the matter had been finalised and will be tabled before the House in February when it reconvenes.
At the same time, Kamanda rejected claims of a possible clash in mandate between his committee and the Public Investment Committee (PIC) and that on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who have expressed an interest in probing the matter.
“We had not concluded (our probe).” Kamanda explained, “Even at the time we went for the break those are the people we had lined up to call and that is why we had not given the report until we call this people.”
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