State companies on sale: The government is planning to sell 26 companies to fund the current budget. Already, the Privatisation Commission has approved sale of 26 state-owned corporations to raise funds to support the budget.
Currently, there are 262 state corporations and agencies but the government plans to reduce them to 187 by merging them to eliminate duplication.
The companies approved for sale are:
1. National Bank of Kenya
2. Consolidated Bank of Kenya
3. Kenya Meat Commission
4. Development Bank of Kenya
5. East African Portland Cement
6. Kengen
7. Kenya Pipeline Corporation
8. Kenya Ports Authority,
Five sugar millers including:
9. Chemilil,
10. Sony,
11. Nzoia,
12. Miwani
13. Muhoroni.
The government is broke, says CS Rotich
Others are:
14. Agrochemical and Food Corporation,
15. New Kenya Co-operative Creameries,
16. Numerical Machining Complex
17. Isolated Power stations.
Top hotels such as:
18. Kabarnet Hotel,
19. Mt Elgon Lodge Ltd,
20. Golf Hotel Ltd,
21. Sunset Hotel Ltd
22. Kenya Safari Lodges and Hotels Ltd).
Also targetted are: Kenya Tourism Development Corporation-associated companies, which include:
23. International Hotels Kenya Ltd,
24. Kenya Hotels Properties Ltd,
25. Mountain Lodge Ltd and
26. Ark Ltd.
Over the past 10 years, the commission has only managed to carry out one transaction, which was the sale of 26 per cent stake in Kenya Wine Agencies Ltd (KWAL) to South Africa’s Distell Group Ltd in 2014.
In 2017, Distell increased its shareholding in KWAL to 52.43 per cent after acquiring an additional 26.4 per cent stake from Centum Investments.
In the 2015-16 audit report on state firms, Auditor General Edward Ouko noted that at least 36 parastatals were insolvent, requiring a capital injection of Sh. 118.76 billion to prevent collapse.
He pinned the firms’ poor performance on uncollected debts running into billions of shillings dating back to the 1990s, unapproved increase in expenditure and double payment of debts owed to service providers.
The report showed that while some firms are still financially sound, there are several questionable dealings, coupled with huge losses, which could grow the list of insolvent corporations.