NAIROBI, Kenya – A multi-million shilling tender to refurbish the National Public Health Laboratory at Kenyatta National Hospital has been suspended after a South African firm moved to court, accusing the Ministry of Health of unfairly locking it out of the contract.
Air Filter Maintenance Services International (PTY) Limited claims it was unlawfully eliminated from the procurement process despite passing the technical evaluation stage and submitting the lowest financial bid of about US$3.8 million (Sh500 million).
The disputed tender — Expression of Interest for the Proposed Design Works and Refurbishment of Biosafety Level 2 (BSL2) Laboratories at the National Public Health Lab (Block B) — was floated by the Ministry of Health through AMREF Health Africa, which administers Global Fund resources for the project.
Court filings show that the firm received a regret letter on July 29, 2025, via email, notifying it that its Request for Proposal was unsuccessful.
Through its local agent Humphrey Lwamba, Air Filter argues that the process was riddled with irregularities, including a failure to disclose the reasons for rejecting its bid.
“The procuring entity did not provide the applicant with the reasons for rejecting its bid,” the company states in its affidavit filed through Maosa and Company Advocates.
The company has asked the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) to annul the award and compel the Ministry of Health to declare it the winning bidder, citing Section 86(1)(a) of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2015, which requires the tender be given to the lowest evaluated responsive bidder.
The National Public Health Laboratory was completed in 2016 but failed to comply with international standards for handling highly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.
Since 2020, the Ministry of Health has made several attempts to reconfigure the facility, though previous tenders have also been cancelled.
The current project is co-funded by the government and international donors through the Global Fund, with AMREF managing the donor component.
The Ministry of Health and AMREF have been listed as the first and second respondents respectively in the case and are expected to file their responses this week.
The law requires procuring entities to halt proceedings once a case is filed before the review board, pending determination.
If upheld, the case could delay long-standing plans to upgrade the laboratory, which plays a critical role in national disease surveillance and diagnostics.
