10 State Companies Going Private
Ten state entities, including the Kenya Ports Authority, will be sold by the National Treasury.
The Treasury has identified a total of twenty-five entities for privatization via State divestiture, concessions, and leasing. Ten of the twenty-five State corporations have been identified and are pending the approval of a cabinet paper by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Professor Njuguna Ndung’u.
Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Meat Commission, Consolidated Bank, and Development Bank of Kenya are among them. In addition, the leasing of five state sugar mills, including Chemilil, Sony, Nzoia, Miwani, and Muhoroni, as well as several hotels in which the government is a shareholder, will occur. Additionally, the government is eager to reduce its stakes in KenGen, East Africa Portland Cement, and the National Bank of Kenya.
The event occurred less than 48 hours after President William Ruto signed the Privatization Bill 2023 into law during his tour of the Nyanza region, paving the way for the delayed privatization.
“I have committed 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.
According to Molo MP Kimani Kuria, whose National Assembly Finance and Planning Committee presided over the one-week public participation process of the then Privatization Bill 2023, heads of entities designated for the first phase of the privatization program are required to submit comprehensive audit disclosures of their operations.
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“Those that will not comply risk a penalty of up to 5 and 10 million shillings,” said Kuria.
In addition, CS Ndung’u will publish a nine-member board for the newly established Privatization Authority, which will be commanded by a Presidential, CS, or PS appointee.
“They need to have 10 years of experience in financial matters so that we have competent officers,” said Kuria.
But even as the Privatization Act of 2023 prepares for its initial implementation, opposition leaders continue to cast doubt on the planned Privatization program, characterizing it as a State takeover that will be unsupervised by Parliament.
Since then, Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has questioned the veracity and openness 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.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Kenya Airways, Uchumi Supermarkets, General Motors, Firestone, and Mumias Sugar Limited were among the companies that participated in the privatisation program.
10 State Companies Going Private
