The Treasury is set to put the corporations on sale including Kenya Pipeline Company.
The exchequer has lined up a total of 25 entities for Privatization through State divestiture, concessions and leasings. Out of the 25, ten State corporations have already been identified and awaiting a cabinet paper by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u for approval.
The Kenya Pipeline Company, the Kenya Ports Authority, the Kenya Meat Commission, the Consolidated Bank, and the Development Bank of Kenya are among them. Five state-owned sugar mills, including Chemilil, Sony, Nzoia, Miwani, and Muhoroni, as well as a handful of hotels where the government owns a stake, will also be leased. Additionally, the government is eager to reduce its holdings in East Africa Portland Cement, KenGen, and the National Bank of Kenya.
“I have made a commitment that between five and 10 public enterprises that are mature should be listed in the next 12 months. I expect that the private sector will work with the capital markets so that we can have private sector companies to also list at the stock exchange,” Ruto said then.
Kimani Kuria, a member of the National Assembly Finance and Planning Committee who oversaw the one-week public participation period for the Privatisation Bill 2023 at the time, has stated that the Act requires heads of entities designated for the first phase of the privatisation programme to submit full audit disclosures of their operations.
“Those that will not comply risk a penalty of up to 5 and 10 million shillings,” said Kuria.
A nine-member board for the recently established Privatisation Authority will be gazetted by CS Ndung’u and will be presided over by a President’s, CS, or PS appointee.
“They need to have 10 years experience in financial matters so that we have competent officers,” stated Kuria.
However, opposition leaders continue to cast doubt on the proposed Privatisation programme, calling it a State capture that will lack parliamentary supervision, even as the Privatisation Act 2023 prepares for its initial implementation.
Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has since questioned the credibility and transparency of the Privatization program.”What will stop the new managers from repeating the same mistakes? We must deal with past historical injustices. Perpetrators of sugar industry collapse initiated economic sabotage,” Wandayi posed.”We as Azimio vehemently oppose the Privatization of the Port of Mombasa,” Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga said previously.
Entities such as Kenya Airways, Uchumi Supermarkets, General Motors, Firestone and Mumias Sugar limited are among those that underwent the privatisation program in the 1990s and 2000s.
