Kenya Power Board chairlady Vivienne Yeda who acts as an executive chairman with full fledged office and former Kenya Pipeline chairman John Ngumi said to be lovers are behind the current wrangles at the parastatal. Ngumi chairs Uhuru Kenyatta task force to review Kenya Power purchase agreements. Ngumi is known to be an architect of board changes. Apart from Yeda, Ngumi was instrumental in having Sachen Gudka at the power board to push tenders for Asians. Gudka is also close to another director Elizabeth Rogo, who on the board, cuts deals for international businessmen. Also on the board cartel is Caroline Kittony, representing the Moi family being a cousin of Baringo senator Gideon Moi.
Vivienne YedaThe four board members have sidelined top managers to run Kenya Power since they landed at the power firm. The four have managed to remove CEO Bernard Ngugi after the court dismissed a petition to remove him over past procurement dealings. Ngugi’s three-year term that was to end in October 2022 but he was replaced by Rosemary Oduor in an acting capacity. Ever since Ngugi took over from Jared Othieno and with arrival of Yeda team, Oduor has been lobbying for the position. It is said, she even sponsored the case to have Ngugi bundled out on graft related issues but failed. That Ngugi was at war with Yeda team is no secret. The board has been out to influence procurement and management’s strategy to increase tariff rates, that officials believed would lift Kenya Power out of the red.
John NgumiNgugi was one of the few senior managers who remained at the firm after a procurement scandal forced out 10 others, including his predecessor, Ken Tarus. Tarus, then CEO Ben Chumo and other senior managers were in July 2018 charged with abuse of office for allegedly entering into a contract with a private firm for the supply of transformers, which turned out to be faulty. Ngugi, who had worked at the firm for over 32 years, was appointed CEO on October 2019. Only recently due to tender wars the donor community threatened to withdraw funding. Kenya Power suffered a major blow following France’s decision to withdraw funding after what stakeholders described as court interference by ruling against tender conditions. However, the latest move raised a red flag as the ruling against Africa Development Bank conditionality in a recently floated tender.
Elizabeth RogoTrouble started when a body known as power transmission line contractors association took Kenya Power to the public procurement administrative review board in a bid to block the tender. According to documents in our possession, power transmission line contractors bitterly protested against the tender through application number 93/2021 of June 28 2021. The body requested for a review against the accounting officer, Kenya Power in tender no KP1/6E.1/PT/1/21/ A89 in respect of procurement of plant, supply and extension of low voltage lines last mile connectivity at the average cost of Sh20 million. A breakdown of the tender shows that (LOT-A) involved supply and extension of LV single phase lines and service cables in Homa Bay, Kisii, Migori, Nyamira, Kericho and Bomet counties calculated at Sh9,200,000 or USD 83,500,000.
Caroline KittonySupply and extension of LV single phase lines and service cables in Kisumu, Siaya, Vihiga, Busia, Bungoma and Kakamega counties was listed under LOT B at a cost of Sh7,400, 000 or USD 67,100. However, Sh3,300,000 was earmarked for Lot C similar program but in Embu, Murang’a, Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties. But just before the tender was closed, the power transmission line contractors association dropped a bombshell by demanding for an order annulling the tender document and the entire procurement process. Part of their demand was also an order compelling Kenya Power to withdraw the tender notice and readvertise the same via a fresh notice that unbundles the supply and extension works. The body called for a fresh notice that unbundles the specific procurement notice and lists the same into small lots with specific works reserved for Kenyan citizen contractors among others.
Rosemary OduorBut in a futile attempt to fight back, Kenya Power filed a memorandum of response dated July 5 2021 and raised jurisdictional objection to the request for review as demanded by the power transmission line contractors. Kenya Power claimed that the board lacked jurisdiction to entertain such a request by virtue of the provisions of section 4(2) (f) of the public procurement asset and the board was told that the loan agreement was between the government of Kenya as the borrower on one part and the African Development Fund as the financier on the other hand. Under the said agreement, the ministry of Energy was stipulated as the executing agency while Kenya Power was to be the implementing agency. But the board, in a shocking verdict, held that the agreement was not a bilateral by virtue of the fact that one of the parties was the government of Kenya.
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