Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen has responded to claims of biased tender allocations by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA)

Appearing before the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 6, Murkomen said serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the KeRRA tender notice appeared in different forums.

To begin with, he explained that the tender notice contained projects that are based on termination and retendering.

“After efforts to revive some projects failed it was found necessary to terminate the projects. Permission has been obtained from the Attorney General to wind up the projects and conduct fresh tendering to enable continuation of the projects,” he said.

Further, Murkomen said public participation projects (PPP) are identified and approved by parliament before being handed over to KeRRA for advertisement.

Additionally, he stated that extraction of PPP from the procurement notice without background and origin being made clear and use of the same comparison with projects funded by other sources leads to invalid conclusions.

“Since the budget is itemized to specific roads, the ministry or its agencies cannot establish where the roads are allocated,” said the CS.

“If the distribution of these resources to various agencies as budgeted is unfair, then neither KeRRA nor the ministry will be blamed because we are constitutionally bound to implement the decisions without injecting a scintilla of doubt,” he added.

Emergency Funds & Aggregation of Projects

Besides, Murkomen explained that the public should not confuse allocated resources to address emergencies like El-Nino in some counties.

“Such allocations should not be confused to mean unfair allocation of resources because they will be addressing what is known as the ‘Act of God” explained Murkomen.

Furthermore, the CS clarified that some Constituency Roads Committee decided to combine various approved budgetary allocations into one bigger project which was tendered as one package.

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According to Murkomen, this resulted in the size of these projects to exceed the regional threshold of Ksh.10 million which necessitates KERRA to conduct the procurement at a national level.

“The notorious Constituencies for which type of cause are those that are in urban areas and peri urban areas such as Kikuyu Constituency.

When the adverts appear nationally, people tend to question why such areas have been allocated big projects when in reality they have aggregated their resources to one project unlike many other Constituencies especially in rural areas which receive equal amounts,” he said.

Murkomen – Funds Allocation Procedure

Also, the CS emphasized that allocation of the road maintenance levy fund commonly known as the fuel levy is done in accordance with the Kenya Roads Act 1999 Section 6 (2) D and E.

For this reason, Murkomen said 32% of the fuel levy which is earmarked for rural roads is distributed equally to the concerned Constituencies.

In addition, he stated that 10% of the fuel levy is allocated to address, among others, emergency and security roads.

“The Constituencies Roads Committee which have appointees of the National government CDF and the patronage of MPs are valuable instruments of ensuring equity and optimal use of fuel levy at the Constituency level.

Therefore, it is clear that the fuel that the roads maintenance levy is distributed equally,” stressed Murkomen.

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Development Vote & PPP

Further, Murkomen said the Development Vote are approved by parliament and implemented by the ministry.

He said priority is given to completion of ongoing projects which is a requirement under the Finance Management Act.

“This financial year every Constituency in Kenya without any discrimination received Ksh.64, 759,375, “he said.

Other considerations are availability of physical space for new projects, government policies and directives, technical and economic visibility and equity and regional balance.

Also, he said PPP are largely implemented by KERRA without modification to the priorities selected and approved by parliament.

He clarified that such projects are entirely consistent with fairness and due process and should not therefore be ascribed to any deficit of equitable allocation of projects by KERRA.