Nairobi — Questions have emerged over the actual tax utilized during the renovations conducted at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in preparation for the Africa Climate Summit which was conducted last year.
MPs have opened a probe on the matter following revelations that the contract on the renovation have been inflated from Sh 1.9Billion to Sh 3.2Billion in disclosures made by local contractors involved in the tender.
Local contractors who were involved in the renovations of KICC presented their petition to the House team on delayed payment where they revealed that the contract, they signed under duress with China Wu Yi who were the main contractors was valued at Sh 3.2Billion.
Subsequently, the National Assembly Committee on Tourism and Environment has summoned Principal Secretary for Defence, top officials with the Kenya Defence Forces and managers of China Wu Yi to shed light over the matter insisting they had only appropriated Sh 1.9Billion for the renovation.
"We were shocked to see through media revelations that the amount appropriated was Sh 1.9 Billion and not the Sh 3.2Billion that China Wu Yi is using to determine our prorated payments. It's clear that something is not clear and we have been kept in the dark," said Mercy Meria, one of the contractors said.
The petition shows that despite the local contractors doing 80 percent of the facelift works, they were only appropriated Sh 674M out of the alleged Sh 3.2Billion contract.
"We are living under a lot of pressure, some of us have received demand letters while other are on the verge of being auctioned. We are facing escalating financial cost and bank charge due to the increasing interest rate while being exposed to inflationary causes,"Meria said.
At the commencement of the renovation project in August last year, the late Chief of Defense Forces Francis Ogolla and PS Defence Patrick Mariru had assured the local contractors and the Chinese Contractor that they would be paid directly in their bank accounts upon completion of works by KDF.
The contractors commenced the renovation which were undertaken under strict timelines without any contractual obligation but the assurance that KDF would facilitate payments in time.
However, it would dawn on them that the assurance by KDF was merely 'hot air' when they remained non-committal on the facilitation of payments months after the facelift of KICC was concluded.
Top officials within KDF whose names were concealed before the submissions made before the House team would later direct the local subcontractors to attend a meeting on March 12th organized by China Wu Yi advising that their payment would be done through the Chinese Company.
"China Wu Yi forced us to sign a favorable contract under duress to facilitate us to paid and we desperately needed the small amount of monies we could get to settle our obligation with suppliers,"
"We signed the contract which quoted the renovation at Sh 3.2Billion, without signing that we would not receive any monies," said Meria.
The local contractors have raised jitters that if they are paid under the contract which has inflated the contract at Sh 3.2Billion they risk losing their monies as MPs have only appropriated Sh 1.9Billion for the renovation budget.
"The fact that our payments are being pegged on Sh 3.2B yet the budget is Sh 1.9B, if you do the math then we as local contractors will only receive 40 percent of what is actually owed to us and that's our concern," Meria explained.
MPs demanded answers on how the tender how the tender varied from Sh 1.9M to Sh3.2 billion and involvement of the Chinese firm in the facilitation of the payment.
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"As a committee we are not aware of any of the Sh3.2 billion contract sums. The information we have is that the project sum was Sh1.94 billion which we as Parliament approved. We will only be able to understand it after we summon China Wu Yi and the ministry of Defense so they can give us more details," said Mbiuki
Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku claimed the inflation of the contract seems like a scam to fleece taxpayers promising to get to the bottom of the matter.
"Chin Wu Yi, it seems, is driving local contractors to hell. We should summon the main contractor so as not to allow the local contractors not to be exploited," stated Ruku.
"Where is this company coming from because it seems like it's here to fleece Kenyans?" Mwatate MP Peter Shake posed,
