Kenyan youth may miss out on public tenders: lobby

 

Mr Simeon Oriko, the founder of Jamlab, with Natalie Cofield, the president of Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce in Austin, Texas. COURTESY 

By NEVILLE OTUKI

An enterprise lobby group has warned that young people in Kenya could be sidelined in government procurement contracts for the 2013/14 fiscal year following gazettement of recent notices asking the public to apply for tenders.

Emerging Enterprise Executive Director Martin Nkaari has said the government had failed to institute clear policies on how it intends to effect the 30 per cent youth preference and reservation scheme.

“The newspapers have been running government tender notices meaning it is the same established players who will clinch deals while the youth watch on,” Mr Nkaari told the Business Daily on the sidelines of a youth’s enterprise forum.

He was referring to the tender notice in categories namely agriculture, information technology and textiles, which he said should exclusively be given to the young people owing to their nature.

Mr Nkaari added that the Public Procurement Oversight Authority should work out a formula based on percentage to be reserved for youth in every tender category instead of the general 30 per cent.

This follows President Uhuru Kenyatta’s pledge to reserve 30 per cent of government contracts to the youth to help spur job and wealth creation.

The current procurement rules, President Kenyatta earlier said, would be amended to open a special window for the youth who are currently locked out of public contracts due to lack of capital to compete with established firms.

However, Gor Semelang’o of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund differed with Mr Nkaari’s views saying that a number of youth have already presented their applications.

“Unlike in the past, procurement entities (PEs) today no longer charge the Sh5,000 fees for application documents. This provides a level ground for all participants,” Mr Semelang’o said.

Mr Semelang’o noted that with the 47 counties in place, the number of procurement entities in the country are set to rise from the current 30, 000 to over 50, 000.

Analysts expect the 2013/14 budget to stand at Sh1.8 trillion marking a 50 per cent increase from last year’s.

This means Kenyan youths are set to benefit from Sh300 billion procurement opportunities should the 30 per cent provision be upheld.