How KeNHA pressed on with Sh3b project despite forgery claims

Deep inside the Kenya National Highways Authority’s (KeNHA) procurement files lies a paper trail that a city advocate says tells a damning story of forged documents, a cover-up, and a Sh3 billion road contract that should never have left the ground. 

On January 12, 2026, KeNHA bosses led by its Director General Luka Kimeli’s office dispatched a Notification of Intention to Award Tender No. KeNHA/2915/2025, the upgrading to bitumen standards of the Masara-Muhuru Bay (B1) Road, to Lafey Construction Company Limited at a contract sum of Sh3,013,648,316.91.

The notification told a different story from what the numbers showed. A competing bidder, Ricons General Services Co. Ltd, had submitted an evaluated bid of Sh2,777,395,507.39, more than Sh236 million cheaper.

No explanation was offered for why the higher-priced bid was preferred.

The notification, court documents filed at the High Court in Nairobi reveal, did not disclose any justification for picking a materially higher-priced bid over a lower-priced tender.

What came next was far more alarming. Advocate Anthony Ngatia, acting for a public interest complainant, independently scrutinised documents submitted by Lafey Construction during the evaluation process, specifically, documents purportedly issued by China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group Co. Ltd establishing a contractual relationship with Lafey.

Ngatia deposes in his supporting affidavit that on March 10, 2026, China Railway, whose documents were relied upon during the evaluation, responded to his verification inquiry.

The company’s Kenya Branch Office Director, Liao You Fu, was unequivocal that the documents were forged. “The company confirmed in writing that the said documents were forged, unauthorised and did not originate from the company and further confirmed that it had no contractual or business relationship with the 1st Interested Party (Lafey Construction),” Ngatia states in court papers.

The letter was addressed to KeNHA Director General Eng Kimeli directly.

Two weeks later, on March 24, 2026, a director of the same Chinese company issued a further written statement reaffirming the forgery and disclosed that attempts had been made to induce the firm to withdraw its earlier confirmation of the forgeries and illegalities.

Ngatia wrote to KeNHA on March 12, 2026, notifying it of the forgeries and demanding suspension of the procurement process.

The petition further discloses that despite Ngatia formally notifying KeNHA of the forgeries and demanding suspension of the procurement process, it neither suspended the process nor disclosed any meaningful investigation.

KeNHA issued a belated response on March 20, 2026, indicating it had commenced an internal review.

The lawyer says he filed a formal complaint with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) on January 23 and April 27, 2026.

He wrote to KeNHA again on April 10, 2026. He went back to the PPRA again in May.

KeNHA’s response, received by email on April 16, 2026, was to claim it had commenced an internal review of the procurement process but refused to confirm it had suspended the process.

Then, on May 7, 2026, KeNHA did something the petition describes as legally untenable. It purported to terminate Tender No. KeNHA/2915/2025, citing Section 63(1)(i) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015.

The problem, Ngatia argues in his case, is that a Notification of Intention to Award had already been issued and communicated, meaning KeNHA had become functus officio (having already made its decision) and lost its legal power to unilaterally terminate.

The termination, he contends, was unlawful, procedurally defective, and legally incapable of extinguishing the grave allegations of fraud, collusion, illegality, and procurement malpractice.

Five days later, on May 12, 2026, KeNHA floated a fresh tender, Tender No. KeNHA/2953/2026, for the same Masara-Muhuru Bay Road project.

Bids were received and opened on June 10, 2026.

In the petition filed at the High Court on June 22, 2026, Ngatia now asks the court to intervene before what he describes as an unconstitutional procurement process involving expenditure of public funds is consummated.

“Unless this Honourable Court intervenes, the Respondents are likely to proceed with an unconstitutional procurement process involving expenditure of public funds in excess of Sh3 billion,” the petition warns

The petitioner seeks a declaration that KeNHA’s failure to disclose procurement records, evaluation reports, scoring sheets, professional opinions, due diligence reports and committee minutes violated Articles 35 and 47 of the Constitution and the Access to Information Act.

He further seeks a declaration that the intended award of Tender No. KeNHA/2915/2025 to Lafey Construction Company Limited was unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void, having been founded on forged documents and procurement fraud.

KeNHA and Eng. Kimeli had not responded to the petition at the time of going to press.