City Hall defied advice, says House committee

City Hall disregarded the advice of the director of city planning on tender documents and search for cemetery land, a parliamentary committee has said.

The council ignored the advice during the entire process of procurement, which led to a fraudulent purchase of cemetery land at a cost of Sh283 million, according to a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Authorities notes that the City Council’s procurement team played a key role in the fraud. The team is said to have ignored all safeguards in the Procurement Act.

The council’s technical evaluation committee also ignored the criteria set for cemetery land. It went further to clear the land as suitable when it clearly knew it was not.

The report, now awaiting debate in Parliament, reveals the magnitude of corruption and illegal moves surrounding the procurement of the controversial land.

It recommends that all officers involved be relieved of their duties and charged in a court. Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi is also harshly mentioned in the report, which points out that he has not even gone to see the land.

The committee notes that despite knowledge of the fraud and public outcry of the misuse of funds, the ministry had not taken meaningful steps to try to avoid a repetition.

It notes with concern that all those involved in the fraud were still in office. The team says most of the ministry officials who appeared before it withheld vital evidence.

Mr Mudavadi, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, is accused of giving a statement in Parliament aimed at exonerating his officers.

Clearance

The team says the National Environmental Authority did not grant clearance on the environmental impact once use of the land had changed as it did not conduct any assessment as required by law.

“The fact that the area was dry grassland and a wildlife migratory corridor was totally ignored during the procurement process,” it states.
In addition, the soil is shallow, with a rocky base, and cannot even sustain a depth of six feet. The committee established that the road leading to the land was impassable during wet seasons.