Mombasa Sh17b waste management tender challenged in court

A human rights group wants the High Court to compel Mombasa County to make public the Sh17 billion waste tender awarded to a Jospong Group, a Ghanaian conglomerate.

The Centre for Litigation Trust (CLT) alleges that Mombasa County awarded the Sh17 billion tender without the assembly's approval or public participation.

CLT said that the county mysteriously awarded a tender for the design, building, financing, maintaining, operating and transferring of waste to an energy processing plant in Mwakirunge, Mombasa, for the financial years 2024/2025-2026.

Justice Jairus Ngaah has allowed the application filed under certificate of urgency and directed the county and all the interested parties file their response within seven days.

“In the meantime, the respondents and the interested parties are directed to file and serve their response to the application within seven days of the date of service of the application. Orders accordingly,” said Justice Ngaah.

The petitioner sued Mombasa County Government and the County Executive Member of Finance, Mombasa County Government, and cited Jospong Group of Companies and the Speaker of the County Assembly of Mombasa as interested parties.

CLT, through its Executive Director Julius Ogogoh, said the tender was shrouded in secrecy because the county did not conduct public participation in line with the law and the Constitution.

Ogogoh said the tender has never been tabled before the County Assembly of Mombasa for deliberations as required by law, notwithstanding the fact that the oversight role with respect to expenditure over devolved funds is vested in the respective County Assemblies under the provisions of Article 226(2) of the Constitution.

“The award of the tender aforesaid to Jospong Group of Companies by the county was not fair and transparent but was shrouded in secrecy since no public participation was conducted in line with the provisions of the law and the Constitution,” said Ogogoh.

He wants Mombasa County to make public the details and number of entities that applied for the tender, the shortlisted tenderers and those awarded.

The Director also wants the County to disclose if and when public participation was conducted.

Ogogoh also wants the county to explain whether the tender is a public-private partnership or a normal tender and if the same was tabled before the County Assembly for deliberations.

He also seeks to know the evaluation criteria used, including the score sheet by each tenderer and the successful bidder, a copy of the contract, the amount and the period of the contract.

Ogogoh said the oversight role with respect to expenditure and all the resources by county governments is vested upon the county assemblies in accordance with the provisions of Article 185(3) of the Constitution.

Ogogoh said that all the procurement of goods and services within the county should be done in accordance with a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective as provided for under Article 227 of the Constitution and Section 121 of the Public Finance Management Act.

He wants the court to declare that the failure by the county to provide information sought under Article 35(1) is a violation of the right to access information.