Women tenderpreneurs: The inside story of fast money, sex, bribery, and domination

 

Dianah Kajuju remembers the morning of March 3, 2019 with a shiver. She had not slept for two nights in a row. "I was restless. My future looked bleak. I was like thin ice that was melting away too fast under the sun. I didn't know who to turn to or what to do next," says the 34-year-old single mother of two.

She had all the right to be worried. She had ventured into tender's business five years back after 'tarmacking' for a while after her graduation. "I was introduced to government jobs by a relative. I was told I would make so much money that I would never desire to be employed," says Dianah.

Young, hip, eager, and intelligent, Dianah was on the right side of history. A few years back, the government had revised the public procurement act and now dictated that 30 percent of all tenders should go to women, the youth, and the disabled.

"After months of relentlessly saying hey to procurement officers with the biggest smile on my face I was able to secure a few jobs," she shares.

In February 2014, she finally got her first tender. "It was a Sh250,000 contract to supply office seats," she says. "I delivered on time and got paid promptly. I was sure that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was now my own boss. What a dream?" Little did she know that a few years down the line, she would be staring at poverty and depression.

The rain started beating Dianah in January 2018 when she got a Sh10 million tender to supply tyres for a parastatal. She pooled all her savings, a loan from her Sacco, and a bank loan using a title deed for a plot she had acquired in Ruiru.

"Things turned for the worse once I delivered," says Dianah. The payment was delayed for over a year and jobs suddenly dried up. The Sacco and her bank started breathing down her neck. On the night of March 3, 2019, Dianah reached out to an officer who worked at a State agency in search of jobs.

"I was broke, but I figured that if I got a job, I could use the LPO to get some money," she says. "I asked if he could refer me to any prospects where I could get work.

The officer's response shattered her. "Just go back to bed. Jobs were shared a long time ago!" the officer told her without an iota of sympathy," she says. It was March and the next procurement phase was going to be in August.

"I owed three months' rent, my kids' school fees were unpaid, lenders were threatening to auction me, and I didn't even know what we were going to eat that evening," she says.

Dianah sank on her pillow and wailed uncontrollably.

"I stared at the phone for a while in disbelief, looked up to the ceiling like forever, thought of my future and those of my kids and all I could see was darkness. I had my first meltdown. I felt shattered and hopeless," she says.

Unable to contain her sadness, Dianah went to a bar with a friend and drank herself to a stupor. "I was crying at the counter. People must have thought I was in mourning. For sure I was mourning the fall of my flourishing 'tenderprenuership' business," shares Dianah, who after a year of depression, went for therapy, and after healing got a job in an NGO.

Unknown to Dianah, the tides had shifted. The cartels who had been thrown off balance by the change in policy had once again infiltrated the lucrative government supplies business and were eating once again, as they shut everyone else out.

"I wanted to get rich and ended up starting my life from scratch. I have never been paid for the goods I delivered," Dianah who swears never to ever do business with the government, says.

Many women like Dianah often find themselves gasping for air in the jaws of the public procurement monster. Attracted by the easy money, they get in only to discover sometimes too late they have to pay with their minds, bodies, and in some instances their life.

Dorothy Cherotich is one of the women who had to pay with her body. "I won a Sh800,000 tender to supply computer accessories to a county government. After delivering, I got a call from an officer who said my items were faulty," says the 36-year-old. "I was asked to fetch them from the county warehouse." She tried to plead with the officer in vain. "He kept ignoring me until I asked what he wanted." He asked for sex. "I was staring at a huge loss if I purchased the items afresh. Where would I even sell what I had already bought? I agreed to have sex with him." Three days later, her delivery was approved and payment processed. "I got my money in less than a week," she says.

Investigations by the Saturday Magazine show that public procurement is largely a dirty and muddy world where women are dragged through the mud, extorted, sexualised, and degraded.

When a man gets a public tender, the most he can give is bribes. For a woman, sex is often attached to the deal. "The procurement officers who prequalify, approve deliveries, and forward paperwork for payment processing are the most notorious with sexual demands," says Regina Mukami, a procurement consultant based in Nairobi.

Women who have the spine to say no to bribery and sexual overtures are easily run out of business, leaving only the very strong and legally self-aware to battle procurement bullies. Take Grace Marangu for example. She stopped applying for state and county tenders after realising that she was making more money for middlemen than herself. "You start paying from the gate. I would break a sweat to get a tender only to end up spending most of the money paying off procurement middlemen to get my payment processed," she says. In her last tender, Grace says that her pay was delayed for six months. When it was processed, she had to dig back into her pocket to settle tax arrears.

"When you get a tender, you are told that a certain amount will go to the departmental director, another percentage to procurement middlemen. By the time you are done, the income doesn't measure up to the sacrifices you've made. You can only survive if you're well connected," she says.

Many women-owned companies are used by procurement cartels to access tenders and launder money. PHOTO|FOTOSEARCH

Once you get a tender, middlemen easily turn you into their cash cow or sex object. Ms. Marangu, 37, recalls how a departmental officer would call her at the dead of the night asking for money. "I became his sponsor. I'd even get calls from bartenders asking me to settle his bills," she says. Ms. Marangu says that many of those who refuse to pay up face the music.

Lillian Mwanzia, a 40-year-old former banker, is one of these. "I had won a tender to supply office furniture worth Sh1 million to a county government. As I pushed for my pay after delivering the supply, I was told that I would part with 20 percent. I had already paid 10 percent to get the tender, now they wanted more to process payments. It was not worth it, so I said no. My file disappeared for months," she says. To make matters worse, she had taken a bank loan to fund her supply. "The bank threatened to auction me. My case was rescued by a member of parliament who was a close associate to the county governor," Ms. Mwanzia reveals.

Juggling between marriage and tenderpreneurship has also proven to be a hard nut to crack for women. Three months ago, Trizah Waceke, a cereals businesswoman who supplies tenders on the side nearly lost her marriage because of a tender. "My husband thought I was cheating on him because a certain procurement director kept calling asking for sexual favours and sending lewd texts at odd hours of the night," she says.

Some women have been pushed out of business after being misled by middlemen to under-quote tenders to bag deals. Take Millicent Ogada, a 44-year-old Nairobi-based entrepreneur. She got a multi-million tender to install solar street lights at a local county government in early 2020. "When we were invited to make bids, I said that I would do the job at Sh10 million. I was the lowest bidder. I won the tender," she says. Halfway down the job, Mrs. Ogada realised that she could not deliver the contract considering that the middlemen and procurement team needed their cut up front.

Trying to wiggle herself out of the deal has been treacherous. "It has been a struggle because the directors want an additional 20 per cent cut. I had already paid 20 percent at the start of the deal, which brings it to 40 percent. It's a total loss." She admits that she is regretting applying for the job.

Official statistics show that the number of women winning tenders has been rising. But things on the ground are different. According to Ms. Mukami, getting a tender and getting paid are two different things. Many women-owned companies are used by procurement cartels to access tenders and launder money.

"I have been doing business with a State parastatal even though I don't have a registered company. I use companies owned by women to access deals. I fund the deliveries and pay the owners a small convenience fee," says Patrick Munuhe, whose real name we have changed to protect his identity. These arrangements have left women in trouble with the law when cartels sell air to the government. Catherine Mwenda is currently staring at possible prosecution following a tender laundering deal gone bad. "I was approached by a middleman who said that I would get Sh300,000 if I allowed them to deposit Sh9 million pay into my account for a tender they had won. It was easy money," she says. Unknown to her, the money was not payment for any tender.

"The money was for the supply of non-existent goods," she says, adding that she is on the verge of depression. "I have been asked to either refund the total Sh9 million that was deposited into my account or face prosecution," says Catherine who is also a church elder.

Death threats are also common in these off-hand deals. They ensure the identity of the cartels running the show is not revealed. Catherine says that she is unable to exonerate herself because she cannot dare reveal the identity of the middleman who approached her. "Since my case was picked up by the police, I have been getting death threats on phone from mysterious numbers," she says.

The history

• In 2012, former President Mwai Kibaki launched the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) targeting women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
• In 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a directive that 30 percent of government procurement opportunities be reserved for enterprises owned by women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

Public procurement numbers at a glance

According to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority report to parliament for the period between January and June 2020:

• Uptake of the reserved procurement spend is at 13 percent
• 11,641 tenders worth Sh8,997,304,710 were awarded by the national government entities
• 2,161 tenders worth Sh4,645,019,306 were awarded by county governments
• Women received 7,051 tenders in the period.

According to data from the National Treasury, between 2013 and 2019:

• 106,298 contracts were awarded to women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
• Women entrepreneurs took the biggest share of 56,313 tenders.
• Tenders given to women were worth Sh54.9 billion, equal to 52.39 percent of the total tenders.
• By September 2019, women tenderpreneurs accounted for 46,370 registered companies.

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Women lured to death with tenders

Over the past few years, some women entrepreneurs have found themselves, victims of brutal murders, while chasing tenders. These women have been found murdered and their bodies dumped in thickets and bushes. Here are two of the most prominent recent cases alleged to be tenders linked.

1. Caroline Wanjiku Maina

She was brutally murdered in February 2021. Her body was discovered by a Boda Boda rider dumped in a thicket in the Pranai area, Kitengela, Kajiado County two days after she went missing. Investigations partially revealed that the murder may have been instigated by the payment of Sh20 million for a road construction tender. Some of the suspects in the murder reportedly told investigators that they were partners with Caroline in a construction firm that won a tender to build a sidewalk in one of the counties. They claimed that Caroline had failed to pay them their cut after getting paid for the multimillion tender.

1. Sharon Otieno

She was murdered in 2018. Her mutilated body was found in a thicket near Oyugis town hours after she was kidnapped. Investigations revealed that she was a university student who was in a relationship with a prominent politician. Investigations revealed that Sharon had been promised a Sh20 million house in a leafy Nairobi suburb and lucrative county tenders before her brutal murder.

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Women, tenders, and shadowy companies

Over the last few years, a trend has emerged where women seeking to do business with government agencies are used as conduits for questionable tenders. The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) is the latest entity where women tenderpreneurs have been used to fish billions under the guise of Covid-19 supplies. The probe by the Public Investment Committee shows that several companies owned by women were used to access tenders worth billions under questionable circumstances. Two of the most prominent ones are:

1. Aszure Commercial Services, owned by Ms. Zubeda Nyamulendo

Ms. Nyamulendo got a deal worth Sh350 million after casually walking into Kemsa. She had not been to Kemsa before and did not have an invite on the day she walked in and got the tender. She had no capacity to fund the tender. During a parliamentary hearing, Ms. Nyamulendo was unable to name who the account signatories in the deal were.

1. Kilig Limited, owned by Ms. Ivy Onyango

Ms. Onyango was the sole director of the firm that bagged Sh4 billion tender from Kemsa. She shocked the country in March 2021 when she said before a parliamentary hearing that she could not recall details of her bank accounts and the signatories. Ms. Onyango's company has changed ownership four times. The company was first registered on January 22, 2020. Its directors were listed as Zhu Jinping and Wilbroda Gachoka. In April 2020, the two transferred their shares to 'faceless' directors who later transferred ownership to Collins Bush Wanjala. In May 2020, Collins transferred the shares to Ivy.  BY DAILY NATION