• The Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission now say that a letter purported to be from Tornado Carriers Limited.
• This was revealed in court documents filed by EACC investigator.
A forged document was sneaked into a land payout deal which duped officials of the highways authority and a firm millions of shillings in an elaborate scheme involving senior NLC officials.
The EACC says a letter purported to be from Tornado Carriers Limited okayed the release of a further Sh54.5 million which aimed at ensuring the National Land Commission officials get kickbacks.
Serving and former NLC officials are facing corruption and abuse of office charges.
Court documents filed by the Ethics and Corruption investigator, Catherine Ngari, showed a letter was found following a search at the NLC office.
The letter dated October 30, 2017, addressed to the NLC and allegedly signed by one of Tornado directors, Nazir Ahmed Matabhkan, acknowledged the award of Sh109 million.
The letter further authorised the land commission to remit the payment.
“The EACC concluded the letter is a forgery and was introduced to execute kickbacks for land officials. We had earlier questioned Nazir over the letter and he knew nothing about it,” Ngari said.
Through lawyer Adrian Opiyo Onginjo, Ngari said a second valuation to determine the value of Tornado’s land was done after the first one was rejected. It was exploited and turned into a money minting racket by NLC officials.
This was contained in a replying affidavit in response to a suit filed by Joash Oindo, EACC Deputy Director valuation and taxation. It justified the Sh109 million awarded to Tornado Carriers as compensation for its land measuring 0.0752 ha, in the Port Reitz/Moi International Airport Road project.
Tornado’s plot measures 0.2262 hectares and part of it had been earmarked for compulsory acquisition.
“A large portion of the award was paid back to the NLC officials who benefitted to the tune of Sh7 million, a clear indication that the award was vastly inflated,” Ngari said.
She said the NLC and Oindo took advantage of the information asymmetry between Tornado and Kenya National Highways Authority, to fraudulently acquire Sh54.5million.
“On one hand, Tornado was duped to believe that its (whole) parcel of land was being acquired at Sh75.2million. On the other hand, Kenha was made to believe that it was acquiring part (0.0750 ha) which had been valued at Sh34.5m, but misled to enhance the amount to Sh109 million," Ngari said.
Acting on purported instructions, the NLC on November 3, 2017, paid out Sh107 million in two tranches. Some Sh55.2 million was paid to Tornado Carriers at SBM Bank and Sh54.5 million deposited to C.W Chege, which was later disbursed to agents and relatives and companies of senior officials of NLC.
Ngari said it was also evident from the letter dated March 6, 2019, from Kenha to NLC , that the highways authority was not aware that there was a change in the acreage of the land to be acquired.
“More importantly, there is no legal document showing the whole plot was acquired. The omission is precarious as it exposes the government to potential litigation in the future as nothing impedes the title holders from lodging a claim for the non-gazetted portion,” she said.
The investigator said Oindo, the petitioner, and other NLC officials under investigation have made an attempt to cover their tracks.
“Both the statement and EFT bank details form are not dated. It, therefore, does not inform what award Tornado was accepting noting that there is the undisputed award of Sh75million and disputed award of Sh109million,” Ngari said.
She further noted that the NLC officials flouted mandatory procedures essentially leaving the government exposed to potential loss, duped Tornado and misled Kenha to arrive at a compensation of Sh109m and forged instructions from Tornado to fraudulently acquire Sh54.5m.