President William Ruto has signed into law the Privatisation Bill, 2023, repealing the Privatisation Act, 2005 which was enacted before the current Constitution.
The Bill removes the bureaucracy in the privatisation of non-strategic or loss-making Government entities.
The Bill encourages more participation of the private sector in the economy by shifting the production and delivery of products and services from the public sector.
It improves the infrastructure and delivery of public services through the involvement of private capital and expertise.
Sponsored by the Leader of the Majority Party Kimani Ichung’wah, the Bill also provides for the establishment of the Privatisation Authority.
Ichung’wah noted that the Bill assigns the responsibility of formulating the privatisation programme to the Cabinet Secretary.
“The privatisation programme shall be submitted to and approved by Cabinet. The role of the National Assembly shall be to ratify the programme,” he explained.
In the new move, privatisation will be done through initial public offering of shares, sale of shares by public tender, sale resulting from the exercise of pre-emptive rights or through any other method that will be defined by the Cabinet.
The Bill provides that the proceeds from the sale of a direct National Government shareholding shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
The ceremony, which took place on Monday at State House, Kisumu, was witnessed by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula, and Trade Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano among others.
