Uhuru allows arrest of 4 Cabinet Secretaries – Weekly Citizen

CS, Macharia

CS Henry Rotich

Uhuru Kenyatta has given the investigative agencies the greenlight to arrest four cabinet secretaries suspected of being involved in graft.
At a meeting held at State House, Nairobi, the president told the investigative agencies to go for all those implicated in corruption regardless of their status if they have tangible evidence.
The cabinet secretaries’ arrests and subsequent prosecutions will give the head of state the chance to reorganise the government by dropping those facing prosecution.
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chief executive Twalib Mbarak met the president at State House to brief him on the progress they have made in the corruption war as well as the obstacles they are facing.
It is during the meeting that was also attended by Attorney General Paul Kariuki and Director General, National Intelligence

CS Balala

CS Kiunjuri

Service Philip Kamweru that the investigative agencies bosses told Uhuru that some of parastatal heads paraded in courts over corruption had implicated cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries in mega scams.
Some of them even claimed the CSs and PSs had forced them to award lucrative tenders to firms that they claimed were associated with William Ruto allies. They even claim to have parted with money every Friday to be forwarded to deputy president office. Weekly Citizen has further information, the millions of shillings the deputy president office used to receive as weekend facilitation that funded the s0-called sky team from office of the president has been stopped.
Back to State House meeting, the anti-graft czars sought permission from the president to arrest the CSs, saying they feared doing so without his blessings as some usually call State House operatives to seek protection whenever they are threatened with arrest. It is not clear whether the team also reported to Uhuru that some Jubilee mandarins drop his name as they press for bribes from ministers and CSs money that they claim they take to the president.
The anti-graft agencies bosses told the head of state that suspects were claiming that CSs and PSs ordered them to raid state coffers and take the money to him, but Uhuru told them to ensure every suspect carries his own cross without looking for scapegoats.
An irked president, according to sources, told them to arrest even his second in command if they have tangible evidence linking him to corruption. Some in Uhuru’s inner circle have however not taken this happily and are said to be quietly telling each other that Uhuru should remember the first director of then Kenya Anti-Corruption Agency Harun Mwau who in 1998 on being given the OK by Daniel Moi to fight corruption arrested Treasury officers whose godfather was then Finance minister Simeon Nyachae. Nyachae reportedly went to Moi and told him that if Mwau is not stopped, he will be knocking at State House doors seeking to arrest Moi. Now, they say, the corruption lead might take Mbarak to the doorstep of State House.
Uhuru last year said that he will not shield even his brother, Muhoho Kenyatta if he is found to have been involved in graft. At the time, Muhoho was being mentioned in poison sugar importation.
Last week, Uhuru told the anti-graft brigade that he does not want a repeat of the embarrassment he suffered in 2005 during the state of the nation address where he read names of suspects in parliament only for the cases against them to be dropped because of weak evidence.
It was after the State House meeting that the DCI commenced a probe into three cabinet secretaries who allegedly flew to Rome, Italy, to receive bribes from a contractor. The three had been implicated by contractors during a recent meeting.
The three CSs flew to Italy alongside other government officials to receive kickbacks from contractors in order to give them state tenders. In exchange, the CSs are said to have colluded with procurement officials to award the contractors the state tenders worth more than Sh7 billion. The directors of the Italian company in dam construction were summoned by the DCI and have recorded statements over the allegations. There are claims that several government projects have stalled because state officials have been asking for a 10pc share of the contract even before the tender is awarded.
According to sources, one of those under probe is the cabinet secretary for Transport, Infrastructure Development James Macharia.
Last year, Macharia was at pains denying claims he awarded an American Company Bechtel a multibillion shillings tender for the construction of a six-lane highway linking Nairobi to Mombasa in unclear circumstances. The revelation was first made by the Kenya National Highways Authority which disclosed that Macharia awarded the tender on August 5 2017.
Appearing before parliament’s implementation committee, Macharia tried to justify why he singlesourced for the firm, with claims money changed hands.
Macharia heads one of the biggest ministries that has most of the components of the Big Four.
Before he was moved to Transport, he headed the Health docket where he was accused of awarding tenders to his clandestine lover Irene Osoro who was his girlfriend during his tenure as chief executive at NIC bank. Investigations showed Macharia awarded Nanayu’s company, Meda Africa, a contract to supply medicine and other supplies to the ministry of Health.
The sleuths, according to sources, have reopened the file to establish the truth. The dilemma here however is that the matter of Uhuru’s sister Kristina Pratt getting a tender at the ministry as indicated in an internal audit report will not sit comfortably with investigators.
Macharia is also being accused of influencing the importation of high-capacity buses from South Africa to serve in the Nairobi Metropolitan region.
This has sparked a war with his Trade, Industry and Co-operatives counterpart Peter Munya who wants the buses assembled locally. The CS is also under pressure to explain the criteria he used to award a multi-billion-shilling Standard Gauge Railway deal to companies associated with Mombasa governor Hassan Joho.
He granted the Joho family the lucrative deal in the transportation of bulk cargo over the Standard Gauge Railways but now his critics, who include Ruto’s allies, are demanding his prosecution arguing he violated the law.
The deal involves transportation of cargo from Mombasa to Nairobi in a 10-year period at up to 80pc discounted rates.
Already, Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago has questioned the rationale of awarding the deal to Grain Handlers Limited and Autoport Freight Terminals Ltd.
Macharia is also on the spot for shielding the director of Aircraft Accident Investigation Department Captain Martyne Lunani from criminal prosecution over corruption.
Macharia pardoned Lunani over financial malpractice after an internal audit found he attempted to defraud the Transport ministry money through falsified documents surrendered as imprest.
Lunani made imprest surrender of Sh442,000 for a seven days official investigation trip to South Sudan but it was later established he was there for just one day.
Senior officers in the ministry have raised queries why Macharia never referred the matter to institutions mandated to deal with graft like the DCI and EACC.
Insiders say Agriculture and Irrigation cabinet secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri whose ministry has been riddled with various scandals affecting farmers, is also likely to be charged with graft.
Kiunjuri has found himself in trouble with the president and at one time the head of state warned him that time for “jokes was over” concerning the maize and sugarcane scandals.
Uhuru gave the CS two options – to look for the culprits and bring them forth for punishment or carry the cross. Kiunjuri is linked to irrigation project schemes tender awards.
Kiunjuri graft ghosts while at Devolution ministry are haunting him. A letter by Delphine Bram Christopher, who works for an international aid agency has spilled the beans.
In the letter Christopher claims that Kiunjuri and his sister in law- cum-adviser; Wambui Kimathi demanded a bribe from him to operationalise the public benefits organisations Act 2013.
The letter states in part: “In mid July 2016, while at his office, Kiunjuri requested that we mobilise resources to motivate him to execute our request. He told us to deliver the resources to Kimathi. Myself, the director of Society for International Development Irungu Houghton and Paul Heily, the country director for an Irish charity, Trocare and the KHRC executive director George Kegoro met Kimathi at Villa Rosa Kempinski where she sought to know how much the group was going to pay Kiunjuri for an agreed implementation plan.”
According to Christopher, Kiunjuri had agreed to their requests as well as conduct quarterly round table meetings with international NGOs.
He was to also form a committee funded by taxpayers to act as an oversight on the functionality of NGOs in Kenya. The committee was to include members from the civil society groups and a few members from government.
According to the agreement, Kiunjuri would act on all this in exchange of human resources contracts.
“It was a general feeling of the team that the amount of deliverables will determine the amount of resources required. For that, we parted with USD 100,000 which was given to the Kiunjuri,” added Christopher.
He revealed that he handed over the money to Wambui at a parking lot at Habesha Restaurant for her to take to Kiunjuri.
The CS then agreed that the commencement date to operationalise the Act was to be September 9 2016 but then began demanding the remaining balance of Sh10 million to be delivered even though he had not stuck to any of their agreements.
“In light of the turn of events after we realised we had lost Sh100 million. I carried out consultations with friends and relatives and we agreed that we should have Kiunjuri investigated for soliciting and bribery as well as abuse of office,” added Christopher.
Christopher expressed fears for his life, his work and stay in Kenya for having reported a government employee.
Insiders say detectives are working on the case and its outcome will determine Kiunjuri’s fate.
Besides the above claims, the CS has been on the spotlight over the maize payment scam. Last year, he was forced to defend himself over delayed payments owed to maize farmers by the National Cereals and Produce Board.
Also under investigation is Tourism cabinet secretary Najib Balala over irregular award of a Sh100 million contract for a 2017 conference.
A letter signed by the EACC investigations director Abdi Mohamud stated it was conducting investigations into claims of a contract award to the American Society of Travel Agents Kenya, regarding hosting the 2017 Destination Expo Conference.
In the letter, Balala was ordered to report to the EACC headquarters at Integrity Centre in Nairobi to record a statement.
Insiders say Water cabinet secretary Simon Chelugui is also being investigated in matters surrounding tenders on the construction of dams.
Early this year, there were reports that the construction of Sh40 billion Itare Dam in Nakuru county had stalled after the Italian contractor filed for bankruptcy. The contracted company indicated that it no longer has the capacity to continue undertaking the huge development project from the beginning of 2019.
The fate of the dam now remains uncertain since the Co-operativa Muratoi Cementisti Di Ravenna (CMC Ravenna), which was supposed to complete the project by 2021, is no longer engaged with fulfilling its mandate.
The Italian construction firm had completed 49pc of the project by the time it filed for bankruptcy.
Project management agency, the Rift Valley Water Services Board, is experiencing a hard time convincing stakeholders that the project will be continued and possibly completed in time.
The primary objective of the project was the provision of clean water for consumption and use by 800,000 residents in Nakuru county.
There is also controversy revolving around compensation for those displaced in the construction of Thakwe Dam in Makueni county. There are claims demands for kickbacks are fueling the wars on the construction of the multibillion dams. Also on radar is corruption at Galana Kulalu Irrigation where billions worth of maize produce were lost with those in charge doctoring records to show poor harvests