The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has spent millions of Kenyan shillings on purchasing smartphones as part of a tender seen by Techspace Africa CA/PROC/OT/23/2022-2023. A total of 159 smartphones were bought, including various models of Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Nokia, Apple, Google, Techno, Sony, and Vivo.
Among the Samsung models purchased were eight Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultras with 512GB and twelve with 256GB storage, three Samsung Galaxy S22 U 5Gs, four Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultras, three Samsung Galaxy S21 FEs, seven Samsung Galaxy S20 FEs 5G, twenty five Samsung Galaxy A73 5Gs, four Samsung Galaxy A72s, three Samsung Galaxy A52 S, a couple of Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Dual Sim, four Samsung Z Fold 4 5G, and two Samsung Galaxy A32s.
Xiaomi models included the Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus 256GB, the Poco F4 GT. The One Plus brand was represented by the One Plus 9 Pro 256GB 8GB RAM and the One Plus 10 Pro 5G 256GB 8GB RAM. 7 units of the OPPO Reno 7 5G Dual Sim were also advertised.
The Apple brand was not left behind with the CA ordering twenty iPhone 14 Pro Maxes 512 GB and two iPhone 14 Pros 256 GB, some eleven iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB and four iPhone 13 Pros 256 GB, a couple of iPhone 12 Pro Max 128GB and Mini 64GB, iPhone 11 Pro 256GB, iPhone 6S 64GB, iPhone SE 2022 128GB and 64GB, and iPhone X with 256GB and 3GB RAM.
Other brands purchased were Nokia 8.3 5G, Google Pixel 6a, Techno Phantom X, Sony Xperia 5 III Dual SIM, and Vivo V 23 5G.
The allocation of such a large amount of funds for the procurement of smartphones, especially at a time when the government is seeking to reduce its borrowing appetite and cut down on government spending, is definitely going to leave a sour taste n many Kenyans mouths.
