Charles Hinga, the Principal Secretary for Housing, has been exposed for unlawfully interfering with a Sh1.9 billion housing tender in Machakos. This is not just a matter of broken rules it is a clear case of abuse of office.
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board, after a detailed probe, confirmed that Hinga personally disqualified Keddy Enterprises from the process without any valid reason and went ahead to cancel the entire tender without informing the legal authorities as required. These are not allegations. They are documented findings by the official board tasked with overseeing procurement integrity in Kenya.
Hinga did not just break procedure; he took the law into his own hands. The evaluation committee had done its job and recommended Keddy Enterprises for the award after following all due processes. Instead of respecting that, Hinga hijacked the process, claimed the company had forged documents, and provided no proof to back it up.
He wrote letters to various government bodies including the EACC and Equity Bank trying to paint Keddy as fraudulent, yet none of the institutions confirmed his claims. The Kenya Revenue Authority even cleared Keddy as tax compliant.
What Hinga did was to weaponize his office to block a legally recommended contractor and possibly push the deal in favor of another company. This is corruption in broad daylight. He overstepped his role, disregarded the procurement law, and shut down a critical housing project, not because of any legal fault, but because the contractor selected didn’t seem to align with his interests.
In any functional government, this would be enough to force an immediate resignation, if not an arrest.
The Board’s ruling was blunt, Hinga acted unfairly, unlawfully, and without authority. They ordered the tender process to resume and recommended that the contract be awarded to Keddy Enterprises, the rightful winner.
That alone proves that this wasn’t a misunderstanding it was a calculated move by a senior government official to manipulate a Sh1.9 billion deal.
This Machakos housing project was meant to help hundreds of Kenyans find decent homes. Instead, it has been turned into a corruption scandal, thanks to a rogue PS who decided he was above the law.
At a time when ordinary Kenyans are being forced to pay housing levies from their salaries, this kind of betrayal by top government officials is unacceptable. It is theft not of money directly, but of opportunity, trust, and the right of citizens to benefit from public projects.
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