Deputy President William Ruto with Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Amina Mohamed and Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho (right), at the
Kenya Diaspora Easter Investment Conference at Windsor Golf Hotel and
Country Club in Nairobi on April 2, 2015. PHOTO | PSCU |
Private sector investors found to have given bribes to win
government tenders will be blacklisted and barred from future tendering.
Addressing
the fourth Presidential Roundtable that brings together the executive
and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa), President Uhuru Kenyatta
said the government would amend the law to make the private sector
subject to anti-corruption laws.
“I have given
directives to the Attorney-General to amend our laws so that those who
pay bribes are also targeted, prosecuted and jailed. The law should
reflect that the giver is as guilty as the taker,” the President said,
adding that those found guilty will have their assets seized to recover
what was stolen from the public.
The head of State said
besides the “reality of corruption”, there was the “perception of
justice” and there were companies that engage in practices that create
perceptions of corruption to defeat genuine competition.
Such companies include those who use courts to sabotage tendering processes where they have lost through a fair process.
“If
you lodge a case in court and it is proved that you filed the case just
to sabotage your competitor, you will be blacklisted and you will never
participate in any tendering process in Kenya,” said the President.
COST OF PRODUCTION
Addressing
the meeting, Deputy President William Ruto said the government would
redefine “local supplier” in its buy-Kenya-build-Kenya initiative to
lock out locals importing goods and presenting them as locally
manufactured.
“We will lower the cost of production
further so that it translates to more locally manufactured products in
the market. All our locally produced and manufactured products will be
given priority to supply the government. We will redefine local
suppliers not as people who are local selling products from China but
local people supplying locally manufactured products,” Mr Ruto said.
Kepsa
chairman Vimal Shah said although the cost of power had declined
significantly, there was a need to ensure quality and stability of
electricity to improve the ease of doing business in the country.
He
urged the private sector to join hands with the government in fighting
corruption, proposing a change to the anti-corruption laws to contain
stiff penalties to those giving bribes
“We have signed a commitment to desist from giving bribes to the government officials and ensure that we, the private sector business leaders, ensure corrupt free tender and procurement procedures in all our business dealings,” Mr Shah said.
“We have signed a commitment to desist from giving bribes to the government officials and ensure that we, the private sector business leaders, ensure corrupt free tender and procurement procedures in all our business dealings,” Mr Shah said.
ILLICIT PRODUCTS
The
private sector also expressed concerns about the big losses incurred
from counterfeit goods, urging that the anti-counterfeit agency’s work
include illicit products so as to cover both substandard and illicit
products on the market.
The cost of counterfeits in
Kenya is said to have grown tremendously over the past three years, with
Kenya currently losing Sh150 billion annually to fakes.
The Presidential Roundtable is held every year to deliberate business issues that require presidential intervention.
The
private sector also meet at a ministerial forum every month to discuss
issues relating to policies that affect them and their businesses.
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