Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong' yesterday became the first high-ranking casualty as the anti-graft war is extended to the counties which are viewed as havens of graft.
Ojaamong', a known ally of Opposition leader Raila Odinga, was dramatically arrested and handcuffed alongside three co-accused in a humbling experience for a man used to trappings of power and opulence. They are accused of having jointly hatched a scheme to defraud the county of Sh8 million.
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The governor was chauffeured to the anti-corruption headquarters at Integrity Centre in his official motorcade, complete with bodyguards, to present himself. Upon arrival, he was repatriated by EACC detectives into a waiting van and ferried to court as an ordinary citizen.
His arrest sent shock waves through the 47 devolved units where claims of misappropriation of public resources are rampant but prosecutions rare.
Following their historic March 9 handshake, both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga have vowed to stand up against corruption and let the law take its course.
Uhuru has vowed to rid the country of corruption and said no one will be spared regardless of their ethnic or political standing. Corruption is believed to be rampant at both the national and county government levels.
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OTHER GOVERNORS
The Star has established that the anti-graft agency is tightening its evidence against three other governors as the crackdown extends to suspects in the counties.
Last week, seven officials of Bungoma county were found guilty of violating procurement rules in connection with the infamous purchase of nine wheelbarrows for Sh109,000 apiece. Their trial had dragged on for three years.
Ojaamong', who became the first sitting governor to be charged in a court, was isolated yesterday. The routine ethnic and party protests that accompany high-profile arrests were missing in a clear demonstration of how the handshake had changed the country's political dynamics.
Five MPs from Ojaamong's Busia county called a press conference at Parliament Buildings to support his arrest and prosecution and play down any political protestations. They appealed to the electorate to allow the law enforcement agencies to do their work.
In court, the governor suffered a major setback after chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti rejected the application to release him on bond and remanded him for two days pending his bail ruling on Friday.
He ordered that they be held in cells at Integrity Centre.
The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that Ojaamong' should be locked up until the end of his trial because he would intimidate witnesses working in the county.
Ojaamong’s fate is similar to that of the suspects in the NYS case last month. Public Service Principal Secretary Lillian Omollo and former NYS director general Richard Ndubai were denied bail on the basis of security and spent 23 days in custody.
Ojaamong’s lawyers, among them Senator James Orengo, pleaded for his release on bail, arguing that his absence from office for long was likely going to
trigger moves to remove him from office and cause a by-election.
The prosecution has listed seven counts against Ojaamong' and county executive committee members Bernard Yaite, Leonard Wanda Samuel Ombui. They include abuse of office, conspiracy to commit an economic crime and engaging in a project without proper planning.
Other suspects who are yet to take pleas include Madam R Enterprise, a company that benefitted from the county funds at issue, and its owners — Edna Adhiambo and Renish Achieng.
Others are Sebastian Hallensleben, Timon Otieno and Allan Ekweny.
They jointly face a count of conspiracy to commit an economic crime.
They allegedly entered into a memorandum of understanding for a feasibility study on solid waste management that was to be undertaken by Madam R, yet they knew the firm was not procured procedurally.
Ojaamong' allegedly signed the MoU while in Berlin, Germany, on April 7, 2014, yet he knew the study had not been budgeted for in the 2013-14 financial year.
Similarly, he is accused of abusing his office to improperly confer a benefit by signing the agreement.
Wanda and Ekweny face a charge of willful failure to comply with the law relating to management of funds.
Adhiambo and Achieng are accused of fraudulently obtaining the money for services not rendered.
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SEATS OF CORRUPTION
Counties have been accused of being citadels of graft with governors on the spot for overseeing loss of public funds. Auditor General Edward Ouko has flagged widespread impropriety and unaccountable use of funds in the counties in his annual reports.
In Wajir, then under Governor Mohamed Abdullahi, the Auditor General queried irregular payment of Sh58.7 million to contractors awarded lucrative tenders without competitive bidding in 2014-15.
The audit found that contracts for the drilling of drifts [Sh37.1 million] and clearing of bushes [Sh21.6 million] were awarded to the firms that had no contract agreements with the county government. There was also no procurement plan as well as a budget for the works for the financial year.
In Nairobi, the audit flagged Sh20 billion in questionable expenditures of taxpayer funds at the time Evans Kidero was governor.
The city county government also failed to bank revenue amounting to Sh69.5 million even as the county assembly could not account for Sh207 million in the procurement of goods and services.
In Baringo, the county paid Sh20,000 for a wooden meat chopping board and Sh54,000 for a pot-stacking rack yet, according to the auditor, the items looked as though they were fabricated in a local workshop.
The governor at the time was Benjamin Cheboi who lost to Stanly Kiptis in the general election.
In Homa Bay, the administration of Governor Cyprian Awiti is on the spot for an ambitious Sh500 billion agro-city project by an American investor and a Sh3.3 billion road construction plan.
These are among tens of county projects in which Ouko says there was no value for money.
A Sh10 million expenditure by 29 Kisumu MCAs and staff on a trip to Kampala, Uganda, did not meet the threshold of a proper charge on public funds, according to Ouko. The speaker at the time was Anne Adul.
In the same financial year, Sh120,000 was paid to Izaak Walton Inn for the Embu County Assembly’s education committee conference on November 16-30, 2015.
But a review of the committee’s attendance indicated the meeting was at Utalii Hotel in Nairobi during that period.
Lamu County Assembly, according to the audit report, spent Sh22 million to fly MCAs and assembly staff for training overseas.
The auditor said the training could as well have been done in the country.
The auditor exposed discrepancies in the Machakos assembly’s expenditure report. While the annual basic salaries for staff amounted to Sh154 million, the actual expenditure on the integrated payroll was Sh119 million, exposing a variance in the system of Sh35 million.
Some 30 suspicious employees were introduced into the payroll on September 1, 2015, without
evidence of recruitment and subsequent placement.
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