Mystery of missing names in graft dossier

What you need to know:

  • The controversial dossier from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) only mentions the scandal in passing and fails to even disclose the names of officials under investigation.
  • The same reference does not apply to suspended Energy secretary Davis Chirchir and current Independent and Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan both of whom have been to the EACC offices to record statements.
  • The EACC had also invited 11 current and former secretariat staff of IEBC believed to have knowledge regarding awarding of the printing tender of electoral materials to the UK firm.

Names of electoral officials under investigation over the “chicken gate” scandal are conspicuously missing from the corruption dossier presented to Parliament by President Uhuru Kenyatta, lending credence to anti-graft boss Mumo Matemu’s assertion that the report may have been edited.

The controversial dossier from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) only mentions the scandal in passing and fails to even disclose the names of officials under investigation.

According to the report, the “former IIEC officials” are accused of receiving bribes “to offer contracts to M/S Smith and Ouzman, a UK based firm.”

“The bribes are alleged to have been given by the firm through a local agent by the name Trevy James Oyombra,” the report states, adding that the matter was under investigation.

What raises questions though is that while there is a direct reference to the former Kenya National Examinations Council boss Paul Wasanga, the same is not the case for the former IIEC officials who have been grilled over the scandal.

Mr Wasanga and senior KNEC officials, the EACC’s report says, are under investigation on bribery allegations “in respect of purchasing of examination materials”.

The same reference does not apply to suspended Energy secretary Davis Chirchir and current Independent and Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan both of whom have been to the EACC offices to record statements.

The EACC had also invited 11 current and former secretariat staff of IEBC believed to have knowledge regarding awarding of the printing tender of electoral materials to the UK firm.

On Thursday, EACC chairman Mumo Matemu and his deputy Irene Keino, who have both claimed to have been under pressure to resign, told the Senate Justice and Legal Affairs committee that the report was edited. They also alleged external interference in the commission’s work.

The two directors of Smith and Ouzman, Nicholas Charles Smith, 43, and his father Christopher John Smith, 71, were in February convicted of paying bribes to Kenyan officials in order to win printing tenders.

Smith, 43, was handed a three-year jail term by the Southwark Crown Court for his role while his father was sentenced to an 18-month suspended jail term.