The Ministry of ICT has dismissed arguments made by select media houses protesting the government's decision to award the lucrative MyGov distribution tender to The Star newspaper under the Convergence Media banner.
In a press briefing held on Wednesday, January 31, at the Teleposta Towers, the ICT Permanent Secretary Edward Kisiang'ani stated that a total of 5 media houses went through a vetting process for the advertised tender notice.
Kisiang'ani, highlighting why The Standard missed out on the tender, stated that the media house was spreading false claims about the tender notice vetting process.
“The claim that there was no tender came from this media house. Which tender were they responding to when they came here for vetting?” Kisiang'ani posed.
According to the PS, Standard Media Group missed the bidding process, as the media stable lacked the necessary documents showing the company’s print run for the past six months.
“The bidders for the advertising tender were Media Network, Mediamax Network, Nation Media House, Postal Corporation of Kenya, and Convergence Africa Media,” he noted.
Kisiang'ani clarified that all media houses, including Standard Media house, underwent a vigorous process before the State settled on Convergence Media, which is part of Radio Africa.
The PS while defending the plan to award the tender to one media company, explained that some of the companies bid with higher charges.
"The Government has been going through hell in terms of paying pending bills related to advertising. The original arrangement was to share the advertisement space in MyGov amongst the media houses and each media house had its figure,” Kisiang'ani explained.
The tender, which was awarded to Convergence Africa Media, involves the distribution of MyGov, the only official government medium for all public sector print advertisements.
The Star newspaper, which is under Convergence Media, will distribute the MyGov pullout as opposed to the norm which entailed four other national newspapers.
The contract will be renewed after two years, to give other institutions a chance to bid for the same.
