Women say cartels preventing them from accessing govt tenders

Rachel Ruto (second left) with Mombasa County women representative Mishi Mboko (third left) at the Government Training Institute in Mombasa during the launch of table banking in the county on August 25, 2014. Ms Mboko appealed to Mrs Ruto to help women access government tenders. PHOTO | DPPS

What you need to know:

  • They want DP William Ruto’s wife Rachel to assist them in containing the cartels.
  • They say the cartels control government tenders and ensure they are given to preferred people.
  • Mrs Ruto advised women to keep their meeting places and individual plans secret to avoid attracting thieves.
  • She also warned women to avoid group projects which largely fail due to inactive and defaulting participants.

Women leaders from Mombasa County have asked Deputy President William Ruto’s wife Rachel to assist them in containing cartels that they say control government tenders if they want women to benefit from table banking.

Mombasa County women representative Mishi Mboko said that many registered women groups had tried to get government tenders but they were unsuccessful because of corrupt procurement officers who award tenders to their preferred people.

Her remarks came a few hours after Mrs Ruto and experts from her office trained women on the table banking concept and the benefits of being in a registered group, especially when seeking government tenders.

“I have received reports and even tried to intervene for very many registered women groups in getting tenders, but because of these cartels they get nothing.

"Even the simplest of tenders such as cleaning, sweeping are given to people who are already rich,” Ms Mboko said during the training at the Government Training Institute in Mombasa.

URGED TO INTERVENE

She appealed to Mrs Ruto to intervene in addressing the problem of cartels so that women groups could benefit from government tenders.

She added that most of the companies that are awarded the tenders end up receiving the same or more tenders repeatedly under "different names" supported by their corrupt procurement officers.

Mrs Ruto advised women to keep their meeting places and individual plans secret to avoid attracting thieves who may wantt to rob them of their savings and work hard in their investments.

She also warned women to avoid group projects, which largely fail due to inactive and defaulting participants and instead use the loans they get from table banking to invest in personal businesses.

Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho, who addressed the meeting, promised to support women groups that are focused on investment.

TABLE BANKING CONCEPT

Earlier, senior programmes officer at Mrs Ruto’s office and table banking guru Abraham Kipkemei taught women how the concept works and the requirements needed to run a successful table banking group.

“Your group must be registered with the Ministry of Gender and Social Services and must have a minimum of 15 to 35 members,” said Mr Kipkemei.

He had advised women to quickly form groups, noting that the government easily gives priority to groups in table banking access to loans and tenders as they are able to prove they are disciplined and reliable in investments and repaying loans.

Mombasa is the 34th county so far to benefit from dissemination of information on table banking.

The day-long meeting also saw table banking ward trainers being issued with certificates for their training, which was conducted days earlier at Shanzu.