All tenders valued at less than one billion shillings will be reserved for Kenyan companies under a government-backed push to protect them against well-funded foreign firms, if proposed amendments to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 tabled in Parliament is passed.
The proposal seeks to boost the prospects of local firms that are increasingly finding it difficult to compete against foreigners, notably Chinese companies in the race for tenders at the national and county governments.
“The principal object of the bill is to amend the Act to prescribe the threshold of procurements that shall be awarded to local firms,” the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (Amendment) Bill, 2024 says.
Foreign firms shall be eligible for procurement of contracts of more than the value, where the foreign firm has entered into a joint venture procurement with a local firm for not less than 30 percent of the value of the value of the procurement.
Local contractors have increasingly voiced concerns over the influx of well-funded foreign firms which they say lock them out of projects, mainly in the roads and housing sectors.
The proposed law sponsored by National Assembly Finance Committee chairman Kuria Kimani has been published for introduction in the National Assembly for first reading.
“Any procurement less than Sh1 billion shall be awarded to a local firm,” the Bill says.
It says a foreign firm shall be eligible for tenders above Sh1 billion but only if such a firm has entered into a joint venture with a local one for not less than 30 per cent of the procurement deal.
The procuring entity, the Bill states, shall specify the goods, works and services that shall be undertaken by a local firm under the joint venture procurement.
