Mudavadi quizzed by KACC over plot fraud

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi was on Wednesday questioned for close to three hours by detectives from the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission investigating the graves scandal.

The KACC team, led by a Mr Bosire, a chief investigator, is inquiring into the Nairobi City Council cemetery fraud, in which public funds were used to buy a 120-acre plot in Mavoko Township judged by experts to be worthless for graves.

The deputy premier was interviewed in his office at Jogoo House.

Came out fighting

An emotional Mr Mudavadi came out fighting, saying he had been “persecuted, crucified and sentenced”.

Also coming out in defence of Mr Mudavadi was Prime Minister Raila Odinga who told Parliament that there was “an ulterior motive” in the allegations against the Local Government minister.

Some Sh283 million was used to buy a plot whose real price was Sh24 million and the balance distributed to 17 recipients. Mr Odinga said KACC relied on the statement of an individual identified as a recipient of part of the money to link the deputy PM to the fraud.

He also took issue with the leaking of the KACC report, addressed to him, even before he received it.

A report by the KACC recommends that Mr Mudavadi be investigated further. It quotes Ms Mary Ng’ethe, the Nairobi City Council’s director of legal affairs, as saying that Mr Newton Osiemo was introduced to her by mayor Geoffrey Majiwa as a business associate of Mr Mudavadi who would take care of the “personal interests” of the deputy PM and his permanent secretary, Mr Sammy Kirui.

Ms Ng’ethe and Mr Kirui are among 13 officials interdicted by President Kibaki on Monday, pending investigations into the graves saga.

Mudavadi’s request

On Thursday, a press conference the deputy PM had called to defend himself was delayed for three hours as he, accompanied by his director of communications, Mr Kibisu Kabatesi, and lawyer Fred Ojiambo, was interrogated by the detectives.

His office said the detectives were responding to a request made to KACC acting director John Mutonyi by Mr Mudavadi on Tuesday evening.

Emerging from his session with the corruption investigations, Mr Mudavadi said: “Today, KACC finally honoured my invitation for a meeting in order for me to share with them credible information about the fraud that was engineered between the Treasury, officers in the Ministry of Local Government and the City Council of Nairobi.”

He said he was innocent, adding that he had invited KACC to investigate the grave saga sometime in 2008.

He released documents showing that money for land was paid six months before a sale agreement was signed.

He also denied that Mr Osiemo, reported by KACC to have received Sh59 million, was his “emissary”.

In a day of dramatic developments, Mr Osiemo issued a statement, denying that he acted for Mr Mudavadi, or that he received any money from the council. He said he was not hiding and would present himself to KACC on Friday.

The DPM accused KACC of leaking its report prematurely.

Mr Odinga defended Mr Mudavadi against calls that he takes political responsibility and steps aside to clear the way for investigations into the fraud.

Responding to a question by Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale, who had sought to know whether both the PM and Mr Mudavadi would step aside now that officers in their respective dockets had been suspended over corruption allegations, Mr Odinga dismissed the KACC report as “incomplete” and that it had been released prematurely.

Mr Mudavadi gave the press letters he had separately written to the anti-graft agency and the head of Public Service Francis Muthaura demanding that action be taken against Local Government ministry and City Council officials implicated in the scandal. He said no action was taken.

In the first letter, dated February 17 this year, Mr Mudavadi asked KACC to take action against all those who had been implicated in the fraud by a Special Audit report of the Controller and Auditor General. A day later, Mr Mudavadi wrote to Mr Muthaura demanding that action be taken against officers in his ministry and City Hall who had been implicated in the scam by the Controller and Auditor-General.

“To the best of my knowledge, no action was taken until a purported report by KACC — which until then I had not seen — was surreptitiously leaked to the media for political reasons,” he said.

“Isn’t it unusual that a report to be handled confidentially is leaked prior to the completion of investigations or verification of information? Even in law, is KACC supposed to file a report to the Prime Minister and the Head of Civil Service or is it supposed to conduct full investigations and forward its report to the Attorney General?” asked Mr Mudavadi.

On Mr Osiemo, Mr Mudavadi said: “I met Mr Osiemo long before, but he is not my business associate and has never been one. I’ve not had any dealings with him.”

He said he had been “kept in the dark” in the cemetery land transaction to the extent that even his approval for its acquisition was not sought.

Not meant to know

“No one sought my approval. From the beginning of the fraud, I was not meant to know. Treasury allocated and released funds in excess of Sh280 million before the land was identified, valued and approved for purchase. In fact, funds were illegally paid out to purported owner(s) and lawyers in June 2008 — more than six months before the Sale Agreement was signed.”

The DPM produced documents showing that whereas the sale agreement for the land was signed between the council and the seller, Mr Henry Musyoki Kilonzi on December 19, 2008, the payment for the purchase had been approved by the PS, Local Government on June 27, 2008. An internal memo from the principal accountant at the ministry, a Mr J.O. Warega to the ministry’s chief accountant, dated June 27, 2008 confirms that the PS had approved payment for the transaction.