Ward rep seeks to stop awarding of contracts

A member of the county assembly has asked the court to stop all tenders advertised by the Mandera County government and accused the devolved unit of discrimination.

Mr Jimaldin Adan Ahmed and 10 residents accuse Governor Ali Roba of excluding women, youths and persons with disability in the advertised tender.

They claim that the governor and county secretary also cancelled tenders reserved for the special category group.

A September 25, 2013 directive from Treasury requires county governments to allocate 30 per cent of their procurement to the youth, women and persons with disabilities.

But, according to Mr Ahmed and other complainants, the county boss and the secretary initially advertised 210 tenders on October 31 but did not include provisions for the special group.

“To my utter shock and disbelief, the governor and the county secretary re-advertised the tenders without providing for the disadvantaged groups,” Mr Ahmed argues.

INTEGRITY VIOLATION

Through lawyer David Muthama, the group accuses the county chief of violating the Leadership and Integrity Act.

Mr Muthama explained that this was not the first time Mr Roba and his county secretary had failed Mandera voters and asked the court to certify the matter as urgent, claiming that the tenders would be awarded in the first week of January.

The period to correct the injustice and save taxpayers’ money will have lapsed by then, they argued.

The county will not incur any loss if tenders are stopped, the lawyer said.

Judge Isaac Lenaola of the High Court certified the matter as urgent and scheduled the suit for hearing by the duty vacation judge on December 29.