The government paid a contractor who was to upgrade JKIA Sh700 million for wrongfully terminating the tender.
The contractor was to build a second runway and terminal at the country’s main aviation hub — the Jomo Kenyatta International Airpot.
But President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration put a halt to the project right before it took off.
Over Sh70 million was spent in the launch ceremony.
Afterwards, the contractor sued seeking compensation for the premature termination.
A court in May 2023 agreed with the entity.
It ordered that it be paid Sh700 million, an amount the State Department for Transport says was settled as of June 30, 2024. Kenya Airports Authority also paid a contractor about Sh390 million over a dispute on demolition works at JKIA.
The contractor claimed a long stay on the site after KAA reportedly advised it on a methodology it had not planned on.
Kenya National Highways Authority also paid an Israeli road contractor Sh800 million over a dispute in the Kisumu-Mamboleo project.
Latest Treasury disclosures reveal that the awards hailed as avoidable, went higher to Sh220 billion.
Taxpayers have already coughed out billions to contractors, workers and companies that won cases against the government as a result of the negligence by civil servants.
The pending bills owed to litigants, the fresh details show, have more than doubled in a year —considering they were Sh95 billion last year.
In 2021, the court awards stood at Sh69 billion, costs that are argued to be avoidable.
According to the latest sector working group reports, the agriculture sector had the highest court-related pending bill at Sh74 billion.
Of the outstanding amount in the sector, only Sh595 million had been paid as of June 30, 2024.
The agriculture department alone owes Sh57 billion, Sh13 billion in respect of land cases, and Sh4 billion for cases against the livestock department.
Treasury disclosures show that the infrastructure sector is yet to settle slightly more than Sh30 billion in court awards.
Ketraco alone owed more than Sh8.9 billion to a Spanish firm that sued it for wrongfully terminating its contract after the firm went broke.
Bills in respect of agencies under the public administration sector were Sh8 billion during the period under review.
The environment sector owed litigants Sh43 billion, Sh17 billion in respect of the justice sector, and Sh40 billion in respect of cases against health sector agencies.
Public administration agencies owed litigants Sh8 billion, Sh7 billion for the case of the education sector, and Sh3 billion for the commercial affairs sector.
The revelations point to how state agencies have turned a deaf ear to President William Ruto’s call against suits.
The President had earlier decried how the suits strain the state amid a tight fiscal space and warned agencies against suing each other.
He lamented that the government ends up paying huge
amounts of money to lawyers, the
same drawn from taxpayer’s coffers.
