Graft probe alive, says ethics team

The anti-corruption commission yesterday sought to shed light on the progress in investigations into five top government officials, four months after they were pushed out of office on graft allegations.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Chief Executive Michael Mubea said investigations into suspended Principal secretaries Mutea Iringo, Nduva Muli and James Teko, former Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia and Chief of Staff at the Deputy President’s office Marianne Kitany were still going on.

“All of them have recorded statements, but I cannot give you a specific time frame when we will complete the investigations and pass on the files to the DPP,” Mr Mubea told Nation.

He was responding to fears in some quarters in the government that the investigations had stalled for lack of evidence.

Sources at the commission whose identities are withheld to protect their jobs said the cases were on the verge of collapse due to lack of witnesses.

“We are not making headway. No witness is willing to provide evidence four months after we started,” said an investigator.

Commenting on the slow pace of investigations, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, said it was incumbent on the agencies involved in the fight against corruption to deliver. “The Presidency believes in allowing institutions of governance to work and expect they will do their work,” Mr Esipisu said, refraining from discussing the matter further.

While the agency has completed investigations into five Cabinet secretaries, several governors and MPs and recommended their prosecution or closure of files for lack of evidence, it has been quiet on the allegations facing the five government officials.

Mr Kimemia is accused of overseeing the illegal awarding of a Sh1.1 billion tender at the Internal Security ministry when he was permanent secretary. He has called the allegations baseless and urged the commission to investigate.

Mr Iringo, the suspended Defence principal secretary is accused of bribing members of the disbanded Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to remove his name from the report on the expenditure of Sh2.9 billion at the Office of the President.

Mr Iringo has denied that he paid five members of the PAC Sh1.5 million to influence its report.

Ms Kitany is, on the other hand, facing allegations that she funnelled Sh100 million into a campaign to impeach Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru using MPs. 

She is also accused of abuse of office and misappropriation of a further Sh100 million.

Suspended Transport PS Nduva Muli is accused of irregularly facilitating the disposal of Kenya Railways properties in Nairobi and various towns. He is also accused of irregularly awarding a tender for the standard gauge railway to a Chinese company.