Mombasa County is facing mounting scrutiny after the Centre for Litigation Trust (CLT) alleged that Governor Abdulswamad Nassir’s administration awarded a Ksh17 billion waste management tender to a Ghanaian conglomerate without due process.
According to CLT, the tender for the design, construction, financing, operation, and transfer of a waste-to-energy processing plant in Mwakirunge was issued secretly, without public participation or approval from the County Assembly. The organization has given the county a seven-day ultimatum to provide details on how the contract was awarded, including a shortlist of applicants, the evaluation criteria, and the quoted project cost.
“We seek to know whether the tender is a public-private partnership or a normal tender and if the PPP was tabled before the County Assembly for deliberation,” CLT stated in a letter addressed to the county government.
The organization further claimed that the county had failed to table the tender before the assembly as required by law. It also demanded transparency on the evaluation process and score sheets for each bidder, insisting that public participation is a constitutional requirement that cannot be overlooked.
The controversy comes just months after Governor Nassir led a Mombasa delegation to Ghana in early August, where they reportedly explored partnerships in waste management and renewable energy.
The issue has also stirred debate within the Mombasa County Assembly. Bamburi MCA Patrick Mwavule dismissed claims that the assembly had approved the project, demanding clarity on the alleged authorization.
“There was a letter that was written citing approval from the assembly. I sit in the assembly and have never been part of such a conversation,” Mwavule remarked, urging the executive to come clean on the tendering process.
The county has yet to respond publicly to the allegations as pressure mounts for full disclosure.
