Vendors and insiders at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) are up in arms over what they describe as deliberate frustration of payments by the Finance Director, Adan Mohamed, a practice sources allege has created systemic paralysis within the bureau, leaving suppliers stranded, cash flows blocked, and contracts imperilled.
Sources indicate that Adan has transformed the payment process into a bureaucratic nightmare, routinely locking cheques in his office, delaying approvals even after all directors have signed off, and holding funds for weeks without explanation, effectively subordinating operational procedures to his personal discretion.
Insiders allege that this pattern is intended to ensure that banks are forced to contact him directly for final clearance, reinforcing a sense of control and power that appears to eclipse the formal governance structures designed to ensure transparency and accountability.
“He locks cheques in his drawer and travels, leaving us stranded,” one frustrated officer said, describing a recurrent situation in which approved payments remain immobile until the Finance Director authorizes release.
“Even when everything is approved, nothing moves unless he says so,” the officer added, capturing the daily operational bottlenecks experienced by KEBS departments and the vendors upon whom the bureau relies to execute its mandates.
Several suppliers report that the stalling is strategically leveraged to coerce them into private meetings where they are expected to “appreciate” him before their payments are processed, creating an environment that employees and contractors alike describe as financial and reputational intimidation.
Those who challenge these delays reportedly risk being blacklisted or having their businesses targeted, amplifying the sense of vulnerability among contractors dependent on timely payments to service loans and maintain operational capacity.
Many vendors now find themselves struggling to repay commercial loans taken to fulfill KEBS contracts, a burden insiders characterize as financial blackmail, whereby adherence to contractual obligations is held hostage to administrative discretion.
The consequences extend beyond individual hardship, reflecting a wider erosion of institutional integrity within an organization tasked with safeguarding national standards for products and services across Kenya.
The revelations paint a deeply disturbing picture of KEBS, suggesting that the bureau, while legally and operationally mandated to uphold quality and compliance, is allegedly compromised from within by what employees describe as internal rot and top-level arrogance.
If left unaddressed, these practices threaten not only supplier trust and operational efficiency but also the broader credibility of KEBS as a regulatory institution, undermining public confidence not because of product standards but because of the apparent low standards of integrity among its leadership.
Oversight bodies such as the Public Service Commission (PSC), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), and the National Treasury’s accounting oversight departments have been called upon to investigate, with vendors and employees invoking formal complaints to ensure compliance with statutory financial governance and procurement regulations.
Unless decisive intervention is undertaken, the bureau risks entrenching a culture of fear and financial coercion, destabilizing supplier relationships, and compromising Kenya’s broader industrial and trade compliance framework, exposing a rare but acute case where internal governance failures eclipse technical regulatory mandates.
