The Weekly Vision Reporter
President William Ruto’s unveiling of a redesigned national police uniform on Friday, intended to modernise the image of the Kenya Police Service, has been overshadowed by mounting questions over the company awarded the multi-billion-shilling tender to supply it, with reports linking the firm’s registered address to businesses associated with the President’s family.
The new attire was launched at the National Police College in Kiganjo during the 149th Pass-Out Parade, where more than 6,000 recruits graduated. The unveiling has drawn scrutiny over both its cost and timing. Opposition leaders Kalonzo Musyoka and Eugene Wamalwa have separately raised concerns over what they described as a contract worth almost KSh3 billion, with Wamalwa demanding transparency over “the company that made the uniform, and how, and to whom, the tender was awarded”.
The main supplier is Nalitex Limited, which, according to sources, was incorporated on 3 May 2024, barely two years before the uniforms it supplied were unveiled by the President. In the days preceding the launch, the identity of the supplier had reportedly been kept largely under wraps, with insiders suggesting that an unnamed Member of Parliament had influence over the tender award, although the cost was not disclosed at the time.
Reports indicate that Nalitex’s listed Nairobi office could not be traced and that its postal address was found to be shared with an established auditing firm and a property business reportedly linked to President Ruto’s family. Similarly, the company’s registered address is said to be associated with businesses connected to the Ruto family, a claim that has fuelled concerns over potential conflicts of interest in the award of the tender.
The episode echoes a similar dispute in December 2018, when reports emerged of tension between then-Deputy President Ruto and then-Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i over a previous police uniform tender, with the National Youth Service ultimately retained as the producer.
Uniform procurement in Kenya has periodically attracted controversy over contract awards and beneficiaries. The current unveiling also comes at a politically sensitive moment. It follows the lapse of a seven-day deadline set by former Chief Justice David Maraga for the Government to publish the long-awaited police reforms taskforce report, submitted in November 2023 but not yet released in full.
Critics have suggested that the timing of the uniform launch risks being interpreted as prioritising visible, symbolic change over substantive institutional reform. For a financially literate readership, the episode raises questions that extend beyond aesthetics.
A public procurement contract of this scale, reportedly worth between KSh2.8 billion and KSh3 billion, inevitably invites scrutiny of the competitive tendering process, particularly where a supplier is newly incorporated, its physical premises cannot be readily verified, and its registered address is reported to overlap with entities connected to a sitting President’s family.
Civil society and opposition figures have called for full disclosure of the tender process, including the criteria used to select Nalitex, its capacity to fulfil a contract of this magnitude, and the identities of its beneficial owners.
