A section of leaders from the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) have opposed the draft Public-Private Sector Engagement Bill 2025, terming it as an attempt by the government to stifle private sector operations through excessive regulations.
Speaking in Nyeri County during a public participation forum on the draft legislation, the KNCCI officials said that the proposed legislation failed to reflect the needs of the private sector, noting that the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry failed to adequately engage industry players while drafting the bill.
They further expressed their disappointment at the Ministry for going against the initial agreement between KNCCI and President William Ruto in May this year to come up with a legal framework that would designate the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the principal body for the organised business community.
They said that they had hoped that the Trade Ministry would have collaborated with them to develop a statutory KNCCI Bill and its supporting regulations but were surprised to be presented with a document that did not reflect their input and which goes contrary to the President’s directive.
“When we had a meeting with the president, we agreed on the need for a statutory body that would facilitate a robust engagement between the government and the business community at the national and county levels. We are protesting because this bill does not reflect that engagement,” said Mugo Mate, Embu chapter KNCCI chairman.
“We are also protesting because the bill did not originate from the private sector. We would like to see something that is private-sector led and private-sector regulated and that is an umbrella that brings all of us together so that the sector can meet the government at a common point,” added Mate.
The bill, which was developed by the State Department for Investment Promotion, seeks to provide a framework to foster the engagement between the public and the private sector for the purpose of enhancing the investment climate and business environment in the country.
The draft legislation has proposed the creation of the Business Council of Kenya, which will serve as a platform through which Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) will collectively articulate priority issues that require government attention.
Some of the roles of the Council include registering BMOs as members of the Council, collecting the views of the members of the Council on the formulation of issues affecting the investment climate and business operating environment, organising and hosting the Presidential Business Roundtable twice a year, and establishing and coordinating sectoral clusters for public-private engagements.
But the KNCCI officials have argued that the provision of the proposed law will only duplicate the roles already being performed by the KNCCI. According to KNCCI Kiambu chairman Richard Ndung’u, the Ministry should have focused on strengthening the already existing private-sector structures.
“The framework you want to build already exists; we have 47 chapters of the KNCCI, and the government knows their roles. The functions of the proposed Business Council are a copy and paste of the functions of the KNCCI. What the government should have done is they should have come and listened to the BMOs, learnt what challenges they are facing so that they can address them and promoted their activities rather than coming up with similar functions and duties of an existing BMO like KNCCI,” he said.
They also took issue with the absence of major business associations, namely the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, the Federation of Kenya Employers, and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, from the public participation exercise in Nyeri. They also questioned the rationale used to limit the public participation forums to five counties of Eldoret, Kisumu, Mombasa, Garissa and Nyeri, yet the bill will affect industry players in all 47 counties.
“Limiting the public participation exercise to five regions was a mistake because this is something that will touch on our people in far-flung areas. We are asking the Ministry to cascade this public participation exercise to the counties and to hold a similar one at the national level,” stated Joan Mathenge, vice chair of the KNCCI Nyeri chapter.
The officials are now calling on the Cabinet Secretary for Investment, Trade and Industry, Lee Kinyanjui and the Principal Secretary for Investment Promotion, Abubakar Hassan, to withdraw the bill, which they termed as harmful for business growth. They insisted that any reforms touching on the private sector must originate from the private-sector players.
They have also discouraged the National Assembly and the Senate from debating the bill, which they argued does not reflect the wishes of the people they represent.
By Wangari Mwangi
