Kibaki suspends PS over burial plot fraud

Thirteen top officials in the ministries of Local Government and Finance have been suspended over corruption allegations.

Those interdicted include Local Government permanent secretary Sammy Kirui, Mr Reuben K. Rotich (senior deputy secretary), Mr Boniface Misero (director of procurement) and Mr Herman Chevera (chief financial officer).

Firing line

Others are Mr Paul Ngugi, director of budget in the Ministry of Finance, Mr John Gakuo, the Nairobi River Project coordinator and former Nairobi town clerk, Mr Geoffrey Katsolleh, deputy town clerk and Mr Kanyi Njambura, director of procurement.

Also in the firing line are Ms Mary Ng’ethe, director of legal affairs, Mr Karisa Iha, deputy director of legal affairs, Mr Alexander Musee, deputy director procurement, Dr Daniel Nguku, medical officer of health and Mr I.N. Ngacha, chief internal auditor.

The officials have been interdicted in connection with the fraudulent purchase of 120 acres for a cemetery in Mavoko Township at a cost of Sh283 million when the true value of the plot was Sh30 million. The 13 have not been found guilty of corruption but they are required to step aside until investigations are complete.

In a statement released from State House, Nairobi, on Monday evening, President Kibaki directed that Sh259 million fraudulently paid out for the plot be recovered from the beneficiaries. “The interdicted officers and other collaborators, including lawyers and agents, should be prosecuted for the serious fraud which they have committed against the Kenyan public,” said the President.

Call for action

The Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (Kara) which has been calling for action on the scandal welcomed the interdiction and demanded that the suspects be prosecuted. ‘‘More importantly the cash stolen must be recovered,’’ Kara chief executive Stephen Mutoro said in a statement on Monday.

The President should also ask for a thorough review of all major procurements at all local authorities between 2008 to date, he said. The President directed relevant government agencies to take immediate action against those implicated in the scandal.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Authorities sparked outrage last week when it released a report on the purchase of the land. The report showed that City Hall disregarded the advice of the director of city planning on tender documents during the search for the cemetery land.

It said the City Council’s procurement team played a key role in the fraud. The team is said to have ignored regulations 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 knew it was not.

The report, now awaiting debate in Parliament, reveals the magnitude of corruption and fraud surrounding the purchase of the land. It recommends that all officers involved be relieved of their duties and arraigned 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 in spite of knowledge of the fraud and public outcry on the misuse of funds, the ministry had not taken meaningful steps to avoid a repeat.

It notes that all those mentioned in relation to the fraud were still in office. The team says most of the ministry officials who appeared before it withheld vital evidence. Mr Mudavadi is accused of giving a statement in Parliament aimed at exonerating his officers.