National Treasury Under Fire As CS John Mbadi Admits To Sh437 Billion In Secret Contracts Awarded To Adani Group And Affiliate Companies, Raising Corruption Concerns

The Treasury under John Mbadi is under fire for awarding contracts worth Sh437 billion to companies tied to Adani Group without public oversight.

The deals were made using a rarely invoked law, raising concerns about transparency.

The Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2007) was supposed to stop corruption in Kenya’s tender processes.Yet a loophole in the law is now being exploited to hand out billions in contracts without transparency.

Under Section 114A, the Specially Permitted Procurement Procedure (SPPP) allows government institutions to engage private firms secretly, without a competitive process.

This has become a tool to hide deals from public scrutiny.

Treasury CS John Mbadi recently admitted that Kenya has awarded at least Sh437 billion worth of shady contracts to firms linked to the Adani Group.

These deals were not put out for public tender, raising serious concerns about corruption.

These deals cover critical sectors like airport automation, healthcare infrastructure, and other major projects.

Yet, the details of the agreements have been kept secret, putting taxpayers at risk.

It’s the public who will pay the price for this lack of oversight. Kwame Owino from the Institute of Economic Affairs slammed the SPPP for allowing such opaque deals, calling it a direct violation of transparency.

One deal hands over the operation of JKIA to Adani for 30 years, with no competitive bidding. Another is Kenya’s energy future is being handed to Adani Energy for 30 years for Sh95 billion.

Now, Adani Energy will control key transmission lines and a substation, limiting Kenya’s ability to own or manage its own resources.

In healthcare, the government has signed a Sh104 billion deal with Safaricom, Adani, and others for a project that completely bypasses public scrutiny.

Vital sectors like healthcare are being commercialized without transparencyEven the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is using this shady SPPP model for its automation project. These secretive contracts are a betrayal of public trust, eroding the very foundations of Kenya’s democratic and accountable governance