This archive report was first published on 4 July 2020.
On June 9, 2020, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) published a tender notice for the prequalification of legal services, sparking a dispute with law firms.
Lawyer Willis Oluga, with over 10 years of experience, filed a petition to stop the tendering process, terming it as discriminative, illegal, and unconstitutional.
Oluga argued that KPA's criteria, which requires category A, B, and C law firms to have at least one partner who is a certified arbitrator for eight, five, and three years respectively, was deliberately imposed to favor established firms.
According to Oluga, this requirement assumes that a firm's ability to handle a legal task depends solely on the experience of its partners, which is not the case.
“It is a well-known fact that several firms have associates with more years of experience than some of the partners in those firms,” Oluga said.
On July 4, 2020, Justice Eric Ogola stopped KPA from recruiting law firms, issuing a conservatory order to restrain the authority from receiving and processing bids and tender documents.
