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Inside Uhuru’s kitchen: State House advertises tender for charcoal


State House has advertised a tender for the supply of charcoal in what appears to be an ironical twist for a country focused on advancing clean energy for cooking.

The open tender, which will also involve the supply of liquefied petroleum gas, was advertised in yesterday’s dailies, giving the public a glimpse into the President’s kitchen where, it turns out, charcoal is used.

State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena referred the Nation to State House Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua for comments on the tender, but efforts to reach him were unfruitful.

The charcoal supplier to State House would have to download prequalification documents from its website and register for the documents categories at the office of the head of supply chain management during office hours, according to the tender notice.

VALID CERTIFICATE

“Youth, women and the disabled should provide a valid certificate of registration for disadvantaged group. Pre-qualification documents duly completed should be submitted in plain sealed envelopes bearing appropriate category on the top of the envelope and deposited on the tender box,” read the notice.

The irony is compounded by an existing ban on logging, which Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko extended for another one year in November 2018 as the country struggles to attain at least a 10 per cent forest cover by 2022. The Presidential Delivery Unit, according to the CS, had been given a Sh18 billion restoration proposal for forest rehabilitation with a view to improving the country’s forest cover, which is currently estimated at about 7.4 per cent.

The government has also spent close to Sh2 billion in rolling out cheaper gas in counties, although the project collapsed and the Auditor-General’s office recently revealed that taxpayers may have lost Sh800 million in the process.