Graft team opens probe on rail deal

The anti-corruption agency has started investigating the Sh1.2 trillion standard gauge railway contract after it received complaints that the deal could be dubious. (READ: Rail tender cartels rock Jubilee )

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission boss, Mr Mumo Matemu, said there were complaints that the contract was procured corruptly.

“We are seized of the matter after receiving complaints of a general nature which we want to put into context,” Mr Matemu said.

The anti-graft agency becomes the fourth institution to declare an intention to investigate the tender for what could possibly be Kenya’s largest infrastructure project.

Parliament’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) this week became the third House committee to get on the case.

This sparked a furious reaction from the Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee, whose chairman, Mr Maina Kamanda, said there was nothing more to investigate because his team had done its work.

“All we are waiting to do so that we can finalise our report is to call the Attorney General because of the areas in which he was involved. We want him to clarify his role,” Mr Kamanda said.

The Starehe MP said the report would be ready for presentation in the House by February 11.

The Transport committee was acting on a request for a statement made by Nyali MP Hezron Awiti and met Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and Principal Secretary Nduva Muli.

Mr Kamanda said the team could also consider inviting Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to explain the financial aspects of the project.

The MP has in the past wondered why PIC would be in such a hurry to investigate the award of the tender.

The Public Accounts Committee had also said it would investigate the tender award but chairman Ababu Namwamba told the Nation Tuesady the matter for now lay with PIC.

Mr Namwamba said there would be no conflict between the Transport team and PIC but “it may be a very fine line between what PIC is doing and what the Transport committee is doing.”

The Transport committee deals with administrative matters, he said, and if a problem emerges, it wouldn’t be possible that the committee would investigate a report it produced itself.

“You know the primary oversight committees of Parliament are PIC and PAC. So what PIC is doing is not out of character provided that the work does not step into the administrative sphere that is the mandate of the Transport Committee,” said Mr Namwamba.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) only raised the alarm over the project and because it only investigates matters raised in reports by the Auditor-General either in the annual accounts or a special audit, could not handle the investigations.

“PAC is very concerned about this whole matter because the reports we are receiving indicate that there could be serious improprieties in the tendering process in terms of the whole procurement not having been in accordance with the procurement laws, competition, openness, transparency and value for money,” he said.

MPs critical of the tender have alleged that the cost of the tender was inflated as civil servants sought bribes to influence the award of the job to China Roads and Bridges Corporation. (READ: Four more MPs criticise standard gauge railway tender)

“PAC merely did what we could which was to issue a warning and say that this matter better be clean and above board,” said Mr Namwamba.

PIC chairman and Eldas MP Adan Keynan said his team would come up with a comprehensive report to “resolve the issue over tendering of Kenya’s second railway once and for all.”

Mr Keynan said PIC’s investigations were prompted by a directive by the House Speaker before Parliament went on recess.

The award of the contract to a Chinese firm raised eyebrows in some quarters with claims that the Sh1.2 trillion tender was inflated.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula said Kenyans risked losing more than Sh400 billion following the award of the tender.

Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has also raised concerns over the award of the tender, saying due process was not followed and that some individuals in government might have been bribed. (READ: 34-year-old MP giving Jubilee sleepless nights)

Deputy President William Ruto’s office had also expressed reservations on the award of the tender although he joined President Kenyatta during inauguration of the construction the railway in Mombasa.

The parliamentary committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing had also expressed reservations on why the tender was awarded to a Chinese company.

China will finance a better part of the cost to develop the line to connect Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, which is over 1,250km. China Road and Bridge Corporation is to undertake the project.

Mr Muli has in the past said that the escalation of the cost was necessitated by the need to build infrastructure that will incur low maintenance cost and the Sh1.2 trillion is actually the total cost of the railway that will eventually terminate in Kigali, Rwanda, via Uganda.