BY SAM ALFAN.
A legal tussle that threatened to scuttle currency printing has been withdrawn from court.
De Larue a local printer and Central Bank of Kenya agreed to withdraw the matter.
Justice Chacha Mwita directed De Larue to pay CBK costs for the suits failure to which the court will tax it.
Central Bank of Kenya lawyer Ochieng Oduol welcomed the move.
CBK earlier said that the procurement process of currency banknotes commenced in the year 2014 following an advertisement for pre-qualification of suppliers for production of Banknote Origination Material and Currency printing services.
Oduol told the court that De La Rue were not pre-qualified to tender nor invited to submit tenders or participate in the issued tender Number CBK37/2017-2018.
Currency printing firms De LA Rue and De LA Rue Kenya EPZ Ltd moved to court challenging the Central Bank move of inviting tenders from foreign firms to print the new design Kenyan currency.
In the petition, they wanted the court to stop the tendering process pending determination of the case on grounds that the move will lead to irreparable harm to the local industry
They had accused the CBK of unlawfully restricting the tender process to foreign entities in violation of mandatory requirements guiding the procurement process.
They further argued that there is an increased national security risk in allowing the tender to proceed in its current form without due consideration given to the benefit of local production as well as destruction of the old notes.
De La Rue Kenya CEO, Ian Davies, argued that the law requires all public bodies including CBK to conduct a procurement process that is fair, equitable, transparent, and competitive and costs effectiveness,” Davies said.
