Chinese Huawei Kenya office to face parliament over ills – Weekly Citizen

After we reported illgoings on at Huawei Technologies Kenya office in Nairobi, Weekly Citizen has information that a petition is said to be filed in parliament to have a relevant parliamentary committee investigate operations of the Chinese firm.

Of great concern is the Chinese firm manipulation of lucrative tenders locking out competitors through dubious means. Others are poor working conditions due to abuses by Chinese expatriates of Africans, poor pay compared to foreigners, money laundering, dumping of mobile phone equipments including handsets and sexploitation by Chinese senior managers on African ladies.

In the petition to parliament are issues to do with sexual abuses which are so bad to an extent that the Chinese managers even do it in toilets in their offices and at times sharing the ladies.

The petition seen by Weekly Citizen has issues to do with evading taxes running into millions in undeclared customs, goods declarations during importation and suspicious bank transactions.

Huawei top managers in Kenya are said to enjoy political protection in high levels. At Kenya Revenue Authority, Huawei is said to have had on its payroll the who is who in the management during the era of John Njiraini as Commissioner General. The Chinese firm is also accused of engaging in bribery even at the Procurement Oversight Authority which is against Chinese business ethics.

One notorious underworld player at Huawei Kenya office is CEO Stone Lee He and country president is Steven Li. Parliament has also been petitioned to force Huawei give list of all local and foreign staff and their salary structures.

The petition to be forwarded immediately parliament opens also wants Huawei to give a list of all tenders it has been awarded in Kenya since it set foot in the country.

Using its political connections, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has landed a lucrative tender to deliver a data centre, smart city and surveillance project in Kenya for Sh17.5 billion. Huawei was able to lock out other Chinese telecommunications firms among them ZTE.

The Konza Technology City development is being funded with Chinese concessional loans-state-backed funding.

The Konza project under ICT ministry and Huawei, includes a National Cloud Data Centre, Smart ICT Network, Public Safe City and Smart Traffic Solution, and a Government Cloud and Enterprise Service.

Concessional loans tied to the purchase of Huawei equipment have proved a highly successful way to win contracts in developing countries.

In 2012, Huawei was awarded a tender to build a national fiber-optic network in Kenya worth $60.1 million, a deal financed by China Exim Bank. Huawei is currently at war with America.

Safaricom involved Huawei in providing infrastructure support for the Sh14.9 billion security tender. Surprisingly, Huawei had been disqualified in a similar tender after it failed the capacity to execute the project. It is said that Huawei compromised Safaricom in the deal. The initial tender was won by ZTE. ZTE recently helped Uganda to be first country to go 5G in the region.

If found guilty by parliament, the petitioners want Huawei activities in Kenya terminated, and its local offices closed