The Committee on Finance and National Planning rejected the Bill, amid concerns that some of the locally made products are of low quality.
The proposal in the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2020 aimed to boost the local manufacturers and spur job creation.
Parliament has shot down a proposed law that sought to compel foreign contractors to source all products and services locally if available, dealing a blow to Kenyan firms.
The Committee on Finance and National Planning rejected the Bill, amid concerns that some of the locally made products are of low quality and will compromise standards of the infrastructure projects.
The proposal in the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2020 aimed to boost the local manufacturers and spur job creation.
The Bill sought to amend section 157(9) of the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act 2015 that require all foreign tenderers participating in international deals to source at least 40 per cent of their supplies from local contractors.
“Requirement for foreign tenderers participating in local tenders to source all their locally manufactured supplies from local contractors is not feasible,” the committee said in its report of the Bill.
Proponents of the Bill said that the amendments will protect local jobs and curb repatriation of profits by the foreign companies that are increasingly taking up construction works.Job creation through the manufacturing sector is one of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda aimed at cementing his legacy. Increasing the amount of products that foreign contractors should source was considered a big boost.
The Treasury had opposed the proposal, saying the law provides for the minimum quantities of products and services that foreign contractors can source locally.The push to compel foreign contractors to source more products and services locally comes at a time non-Kenyan firms are undertaking multi-billion infrastructure projects.
The projects include the Nairobi Expressway and the Nairobi to Mau Summit toll highway whose construction will start next month.Chinese firms have bagged most of the grand projects but there have been concerns that not enough quantities of products are being purchased locally.
c/o Business Daily
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