Nairobi County To Use KSh 2.5m To Create Space For Printing, Cutting Machine In City Hall's Basement

• Nairobi county is on the spot for buying four modern printing, binding and cutting machines at about KSh 51 million
• Three of the four machines are yet to be installed because they are taller than the offices in which they were supposed to be installed
• The county is planning to spend KSh 2.5 million to create space for fitting the machines in the main City Hall's basement

Michael Ollinga is a journalist at TUKO.co.ke with over 10 years of experience covering courts and crimes, special reports, and current affairs in Kenya.

The Nairobi county government has been put on the spot for failing to use high-value machines about seven years after procurement.

City Hall's basement to undergo renovation

Appearing before the Senate Public Accounts Committee last week, county officials, led by Governor Johnson Sakaja, acknowledged seeking service providers to create space in City Hall's basement.

According to the Auditor General's report, the county bought four machines worth KSh 51 million in the financial year 2017–2018, but only one was installed.

The machines yet to be installed are an offset printing machine valued at KSh 14 million, a perfect binder worth KSh 10 million, and a guillotine cutting machine worth KSh 7 million.

According to county officials, the machines had not been installed because their height was higher than that of the ceiling of the offices they were supposed to be installed in.

This led the Senate to agree with the auditor's report that no feasibility study was conducted before the purchase, which led to overlooking user specifications.

Why haven't expensive Nairobi county machines been installed?

To address the challenge, the County Executive Committee (CEC) member in charge of the Treasury, Charles Kerich, said the county had identified a space in the main City Hall basement.

According to county officials, including the head of supply chain and procurement officers, the basement's height would accommodate the machines' height, but some columns needed to be removed to enable the machines to fit the width.

"The requisition was done and forwarded to procurement for award on March 18, 2024, April 8, and closes on April 14, 2024," the director of procurement said, while struggling to explain the reason for procurement and the amount of the award.

It took the intervention of Sakaja to explain that the award was to find service providers to help do away with walls or columns in the City Hall basement to allow the machines to fit.

Sakaja said the tender was approximately KSh 2.5 million after his team in charge of procurement and supply failed to remember how much the tender they had advertised cost.

The departmental heads' lack of comprehension of their departments' activities irked the committee's chair, Senator Moses Kajwang', who termed their response an epitome of professional negligence.

Senate committee corners Nairobi county officials

"Governor, why have you brought troops who don’t know which direction to shoot? You have inherited a skunk and need to get rid of it,"Kajwang' posed.

Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna said the county's situation was embarrassing, as it was the equivalent of buying a bigger bed and wanting to force it through a small door.

"It's like buying a six by six bed while staying in a bedsitter. Instead of disassembling the bed, you float a tender for someone to bring down one of the walls to get the bed through," Sifuna wondered.

Nandi senator Samson Cherargei wondered how a head of supply did not know the worth of the tender they had advertised.

Asha Abdi, who signed the response to the auditor's queries, said the tender was KSh 2.5 million

She said that the heads of the procurement departments could have missed the cost because of decentralised procurement processes.

Senator Kajwang' rubbished the explanation, saying there needed to be a point of convergence for the transactions.

How much will Nairobi use to fit printing machines at City Hall?

She said the county had requested the machines to cut the costs its departments spent on outsourcing printing services.

Sakaja said the KSh 2.5 million expenditure on creating space for the machines would cut the expenditure on printing and other press services the county was still outsourcing.

The county chief said the procurements were made during the first Nairobi governor Evans Kidero's era,

He was afraid that some of the machines referred to as state-of-the-art could be obsolete

The committee also criticised Nairobi's Disaster Management Chief Officer, Bramwel Simiyu, for the mismatch of skills in his department.

This was after the committee found that theologians and librarians were part of the county firefighting team.

The county is also in trouble for owing 11 law firms about KSh 10.7 billion in pending bills.

Proofreading by Asher Omondi, current affairs journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.

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