MPs have raised concerns over the planned upgrade of the Bomas of Kenya by a Turkish firm, saying Parliament has been kept in the dark about the timelines and source of funds for the project.
In a report, the National Assembly’s Liaison Committee noted that the government is guarded about the finer details of the plan to upgrade the State-owned cultural facility into a modern conference centre.
“The Bomas of Kenya is currently in the initial stages of constructing an ultra-modern conference facility. However, the State Department for Culture, Arts and Heritage has not furnished the [Liaison] Committee with clear funding modalities for the project, including projected costs, source and funding arrangements and timelines,” said the committee in a March 11 report.
A dispatch from the Cabinet last Tuesday indicated the upgrade would start next week despite the project missing in budget books, including the second mini-budget for the fiscal year ending June that the National Assembly recently adopted.
The Public Procurement Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 requires that before a government body starts a tendering process, it must have clearly defined and approved budget allocation for the goods, works, or services it intends to procure.
The project has been embroiled in tender fights that saw the Ministry of Defence, which had been subcontracted to shepherd the upgrade, oust Summa Construction, a Turkish firm that had been tapped for the job.
The project has come under sharp public scrutiny after the government on March 11 announced the construction of the Bomas International Convention Complex (BICC) would begin “in two weeks.”
The Ministry of Culture last week dismissed claims by former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua that Bomas of Kenya has been sold to a Turkish national.
The tender to upgrade Bomas into a modern convention centre had been awarded to Summa Construction in November 2023 before its termination by the Ministry of Defence, citing a lack of funds and a change in the scope of works.
The Turkish company had proposed to build and equip the BICC for $245,000,000 (about Sh31.7 billion).
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) endorsed the tender and offered the parties 90 days from December 23, 2024, to ink the contract.
It ruled that the Defence ministry could only cancel a tender before and not after its award.
The Turkish company had committed to assist the government secure up to 80 percent of the financing required for the project from a reputable international financier.
The review board was told that, on the advice of the Treasury, the project would be financed off-budget through the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim).
Plans to upgrade Bomas of Kenya into a modern conference started under the previous administration, with the aim of redeveloping its 80-acre parcel of land on Nairobi’s Langata Road to attract international meetings and conferences.
The upgrade, for which Bomas’s management spent Sh500 million on feasibility studies, was to be conducted through a public-private partnership (PPP) model. MPs called for an audit of the Sh500 million expense.
However, the upgrade of Bomas of Kenya does not feature among the PPP projects pipeline maintained by the Directorate of PPP, which is under the Treasury.
Instead, the project to design, build and equip Bomas into an international conference centre was awarded directly to the Turkish company.
Bomas of Kenya CEO Peter Gitaa Koria was recently charged at the anti-corruption court with procuring kitchen utensils without an approved budget three years ago.
Bomas of Kenya was launched in 1971 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tourism Finance Corporation.
