Activist Okiya Omtatah has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision that allowed British firm De La Rue to print Kenya’s new currency.
The Court of Appeal last week declared that CBK ran a fair and transparent procurement process,overturning High Court Judge George Odunga’s ruling to quash the tender.
However, according to Omtatah, De La Rue colluded with the Central Bank of Kenya in the award of the tender.
Omtatah says that the new design bank notes were being procured through a three-tier tender process, where the actual makers were supposed to be disclosed in both the prequalification and restricted tendering stage.
In court papers, Omtatah argues that the appellate court misdirected itself by assuming and holding that the procuring entity (CBK) had the power to waive the requirement in law for prequalification and allow the De La Rue to subcontract the De La Rue Currency & Security print Ltd and De La Rue EPZ Ltd.
He says that the two firms were not themselves prequalified to produce the specialised and complex goods for which the law required in the process.
Among the firms that had expressed interest in the tender, Swedish firm Crane AB was the least evaluated in price score during the bidding process.
Other firms interested in the lucrative contract for printing new notes included Giesecke and Devrient (German), and Oberthur Fiduciaire of France.
The process to have Kenya have new look currency started in 2014, but has been derailed by court cases over poor tendering process, according to petitioners.
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