Mbarire now strikes back at anti-graft boss

(A war of words between anti-graft agency boss Patrick Lumumba and assistant minister Cecily Mbarire intensified on Tuesday as she insisted he accepted cash from her husband.

Ms Mbarire claimed her husband, Mr Dennis Apaa, gave Prof Lumumba Sh100,000 for a fund-raiser in Bondo hosted by his private charity foundation.

Prof Lumumba immediately denied the allegations, saying his dealings with Mr Apaa were part of an operation against attempts to compromise investigations into corrupt deals at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

Mr Apaa is a director of Broad Visions Utilities, a firm co-owned with Mr Billy Indeche, a son-in-law of Water Minister Charity Ngilu.

Early on Tuesday in response to allegations that she and her husband had escaped a sting operation intended to catch them trying to bribe the anti-graft boss, Ms Mbarire displayed a cheque written to the PLO Foundation. (READ: Lumumba and Mbarire in bribe drama)

She claimed Prof Lumumba had met them eight times since June knowing very well Mr Apaa was under investigation.

The meetings between Ms Mbarire, Mr Apaa and Prof Lumumba took place at the latter’s Runda home, while her husband met him at his Integrity Centre office and Bondo rural home.

“We at no time planned to bribe, induce or influence him in any manner on any matter. As a family, we are still in shock that he would do this to us,” Ms Mbarire said.

As he denied meeting the couple eight times, Prof Lumumba said the only trysts with Mr Apaa were part of his office’s strategy to prove that the couple had been trying to bribe investigators.

Laying a trap

“We had been keeping Broad Vision under surveillance since June 25 when we received reports that they were trying to compromise our officers,” he said on the phone.

“We were laying a trap; we were following them at every stage,” he said.

The remarks were in response to claims that Ms Mbarire and her husband evaded a trap to arrest them when they failed to turn up at Prof Lumumba’s office on Monday to bribe him with Sh100,000.

The anti-graft boss said the plan involved the couple’s lawyers who were to craft an affidavit before the payment and later use it as evidence to show he had demanded a bribe.

“We were waiting to handcuff them because we knew that they will bring money in place of a cheque I had rejected. They had been attempts to bribe us and we had reported the matter to the CID,” he said.

The money in question is a Sh100,000 cheque donation Mr Apaa made to the Lucy Onono Memorial Polytechnic in Usigu, Bondo on August 6. Mr Apaa was invited by Prof Lumumba.

Ms Mbarire alleged the money was intended for the PLO and Lucy Onono Foundation run by the anti-corruption commission boss. She said Prof Lumumba rejected her the cheque as it was from a company under investigation.

She said Mr Apaa then went to Integrity Centre on August 10 and handed over Sh100,000 in cash — a claim Prof Lumumba denies — saying Mr Apaa had never been to his office.

Ms Mbarire said it was an insult to her intelligence to suggest she would try to bribe Prof Lumumba, who earns Sh1.7 million, with Sh100,000.

“It was God who tipped me off and I thank him because he (PLO) was probably planning to put handcuffs on me in front of the cameras,” Ms Mbarire said.

However, Prof Lumumba, who claimed the invitation to attend the fund-raiser in Bondo was part of the Kacc sting operation, said his foundation did not expect money after rejecting the cheque.

Ms Mbarire confirmed that she sought an appointment with the Kacc boss to find out if any charges were being preferred against her husband after learning that investigations were complete and the file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“This was the reason I sent a text message to PLO to seek an appointment so that we could know the substance and charges, if any, that my husband would face,” she said.

“This was neither sinister nor illegal as every person is entitled to be informed about charges likely to be preferred against them,” she said.

Ms Mbarire said they also suspected her husband’s company had been cleared and could freely associate with the Kacc boss.

However, Prof Lumumba said no one was allowed to know the charges pressed against him or her and it was wrong for them to seek the appointment.

“Why would she do that? It is not allowed and if it were to her happen, it would have been the first case charges are disclosed before the DPP acts on them,” he said.

The Land and Natural Resources Committee of Parliament has already cleared the Water minister of allegations that she influenced the award of contracts to companies owned by her relatives.