The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has closed its investigation into a controversial insurance procurement linked to the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN), ruling that it lacks the legal mandate to pursue the matter further.
The decision follows weeks of scrutiny over how Football Kenya Federation (FKF) secured insurance services for the continental tournament, with questions being raised about possible procurement irregularities, conflict of interest and misuse of funds.
However, documents sighted on Monday revealed that PPRA ruled out the use of any funds belonging to the Kenyan public during the procurement process, thus making it fall outside the purview of the public procurement laws in Kenya.
“Having regard to the response given, the Authority is satisfied that no public funds have been used in the said procurement process,” PPRA ruled.
It further noted that since there was no use of public funds in the procurement process, it would not be regulated by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act and the Authority would have no jurisdiction to investigate the complaint any further.
The investigation was initiated following complaints regarding how the insurance company had been procured prior to CHAN, a competition organized jointly by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Although FKF is not automatically classified as a public entity, PPRA noted that it can investigate the federation’s procurement activities whenever public funds are involved. In this case, however, the federation successfully demonstrated that the insurance arrangement was financed entirely through funds provided by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
According to FKF’s response dated June 8, the procurement process was conducted under CAF’s procurement framework and the funds were managed through a CAF-controlled account.
The federation maintained that no money appropriated by Parliament, county governments or any other Kenyan public institution was used in securing the insurance cover.
“All funds utilised originated from CAF and were administered in accordance with CAF’s financial and procurement procedures,” FKF stated in its submission to the regulator.
FKF further argued that subjecting CAF-funded transactions to oversight by local public bodies could conflict with FIFA and CAF regulations. The federation referred to Articles 14 and 19 of the FIFA Statutes, which forbid any outside influence on the activities of its member nations.
The decision marks an end to one of the issues that came up during the CHAN tournament hosted by Kenya and received a lot of public attention for the manner in which tournament-related deals were managed.
Nonetheless, PPRA was quick to note that closing the file doesn’t mean that everyone who was part of the procurement process has been cleared. The body pointed out that the case may still be reopened depending on future evidence.
This is at a time when FKF has come under public and administrative scrutiny, and governance and procurement decisions made by the federation continue to attract a lot of attention.
