Corporate News
De La Rue has been contracted to print Kenya’s currency since
Independence, but was only registered in Kenya as a company in February
1992. PHOTO | FILE
By BRIAN WASUNA, bwasuna@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Lady Justice Mumbi Ngugi dismissed a petition filed by human rights group Kituo cha Sheria in 2011, which sought to restrain the government from completing the deal arguing that it had not been put to public participation......................................................................................
British company De La Rue has won a protracted court
battle for a lucrative tender to print currency for the Kenyan
government. The High Court last week gave the Central Bank of Kenya
(CBK) the green light to enter into a contract with De La Rue, throwing
out a petition that was seeking to quash a deal the two parties signed
in 2006.
Lady Justice Mumbi Ngugi dismissed a petition filed by human
rights group Kituo cha Sheria in 2011, which sought to restrain the
government from completing the deal arguing that it had not been put to
public participation.
“In the absence of evidence that the decision
alleged to have been made on the basis of a Cabinet memo was made at
all, or was made without input from the central bank, it is difficult to
see a basis on which the court can declare the said decision null and
void,” ruled the court.
Part of the agreement was to see the government
acquire a 40 per cent stake in the British firm. The court’s decision
paves the way for the CBK to continue engaging the British firm in
currency printing tenders.
De La Rue has been contracted to print Kenya’s
currency since Independence, but was only registered in Kenya as a
company in February 1992. It has since built a factory in Ruaraka,
Nairobi, to ease its operations.
The lobby was also challenging the extension of De
La Rue’s currency printing contract with the CBK for 10 years starting
2011, arguing that it was done clandestinely and that it was marred by
irregularities. It wanted the Registrar of Companies compelled to make
public De La Rue’s top management.
Kituo cha Sheria sued the CBK, the Finance minister, the Attorney-General, the Registrar of Companies, and De La Rue.
Lady Justice Ngugi said in her ruling that Kituo
cha Sheria failed to prove that the decision to award the contract to De
La Rue was made without the input of the CBK as alleged, which made it
difficult to grant the orders it had sought in its application. The
judge also faulted the lobby for relying on Press articles, which she
said were not well researched, as its primary evidence.
She advised the lobby to request documents from
government institutions before lodging suits of a similar nature. One of
the few documents Kituo cha Sheria had attached to its suit papers was a
share sale agreement between Kenya and De La Rue, but it failed to
convince the judge otherwise as it was unsigned.
Kituo cha Sheria had alleged that the decision was
made based on directions from the Cabinet, and that the CBK had not been
allowed audience as regards the deal. The lobby also wanted the court
to compel the government and the CBK to make public the particulars of
the deal it was to strike with De La Rue, arguing that all Kenyans have a
right to the said information.
Lady Justice Ngugi again agreed with the
respondents, who had said that it had not received any request for
information regarding the procurement process, hence could not be
accused of violating Kenyans’ right to information.
De La Rue, however, said that it would not have
released the information in any event, as it is a private entity, hence
has no obligation to release any information to anyone.
Kituo cha Sheria had questioned the procurement
process, saying that the tender should have been advertised publicly to
inject transparency into the process.
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