Tender yetu imekulwo. Those of us whose applications were successful were "awarded" tenders about three weeks ago on a Friday from "The Presidency" and pre-qualification documents from ministry of education. We were told the first half of the funds as declared by the Uhunye et al would be in our accounts by Tuesday. We should then immediately make one COMPLETE set of the school equipment tendered for, photograph it and wait for a go ahead/inspection to complete the rest.

Tuesday turned into two weeks, no funds, meanwhile in Nairobi the jua kali workshops had started and the above procedure followed there, huku mashinani!!! Jua kali sme's wanaonyeshwa mambo. Where can rural sme's run to? This are just some "poor" wanyonges to the max. In the course of these delays some tenders started mysteriously "changing hands" and people being pressured to decline. For example whereas the time-frame given initially was one month, letters emerged demanding they be completed in two weeks and some pulled out.

A few days ago, a G.K stopped at my workshop and a very kali jamaa from "presidency" whom i knew as one of the officers responsible and another two started asking me to show him the timber, frames e.t.c which was NOT IN LINE with what the president and those issuing the tender had said. He became very very kali and "cancelled" my tender without giving anything in writing, mara that that! Hauna Capacity!!! This seemed like a way to make me appear to abandon the process. My workshop is the only one with pipe benders, cutoff saws, IGBT welders and other specialized equipment

Am certain the tender has been awarded to a 'licensed firearm holder' among many other's, i heard there was a lady going round with a letter "from above" demanding 1000 pieces of work from the 3000 pieces that had been awarded to our constituency. Approximately 20 workshops had been awarded the tenders but am kind of certain that the Kabura-like lady had some powerful person behind her.

That is the story of Jua Kali tenders from first hand experience.