Wamalwa demands cancellation of SHA deal tied to Adani

DAP-Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa is urging President William Ruto to cancel the Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System deal, citing alleged links to the embattled Adani Group.

According to Wamalwa,  the deal lacks credibility and accountability due to the involvement of the Adani company.

He also criticized both President Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga for giving Adani a "clean bill of health" despite the company's questionable record.

"We are going to fight the attempted return of the Finance Bill, 2024, and today we are telling Bwana Ruto, yes you have dropped the Adani-JKIA deal yes you have dropped the Adani-KETRACO deal, but why have you not extended the same order to the health sector, because tunajua adani ako kwenye SHA, infact we need to call that thing AdaniSHA," he said.

His comments follow President Ruto's recent decision to cancel deals with Adani, including those related to JKIA and Ketraco, after Gautam Adani was indicted in the U.S. over bribery allegations.

The government has since allayed fears of possible cost implications following the cancellation of all deals with the Adani conglomerate, following President Ruto’s directive during Thursday’s State of the Nation Address.

Citizen TV has established that the line ministries of energy and transport and the Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships, domiciled at the National Treasury, have started the termination process.

The Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships and the Opiyo Wandayi-led Ministry of Energy have started examining the legal issues, costing, and pull-out process from the deal signed with Adani Energy Solutions.

The government says there may not be cost implications in the cancellation of the deal.

"My team at the Directorate for Public-Private Partnerships will give me a brief after that meeting. As at now, I want to leave it generally, because we are in the process of termination. My final brief will include if there is any possible cost implication, which I think in my view there shouldn’t be," said National Treasury and Economic Planning CS John Mbadi.

Adani’s indictment in New York, the United States, may have been a key factor in President Ruto's decision to pull out of a controversial deal Kenyans said violated the Public-Private Partnerships Law and was allegedly marred by corruption.

The government says Adani’s bribery scheme and corruption to raise money from investors, to invest in energy projects, including in Kenya, and fictitious dealings, gives it the liberty to terminate the contract, which it says after all will not qualify as a binding contractual agreement.

"The contract was signed on the basis of the presentation by Adani. And that presentation, if it was fictitious if it was false, then there is no contract. When you do a contract, it must be with clean hands. And that is a very basic principle in law," Mbadi said.