• The EACC has formally sent the investigation file to DPP Noordin Haji in what is likely to claim high-profile suspects in government
• The tender was signed by former Correctional Services Principal Secretary Alfred Cheruiyot who is currently the PS of Post Training and Skills Development in the Ministry of Education.
The noose is tightening around suspects in the failed Sh4.8 billion Prisons security equipment purchases and EACC detectives are only awaiting approval from the Director of Public Prosecutions to pounce.
The Star has established, however, that the EACC has formally sent the investigation file to DPP Noordin Haji in what is likely to claim high-profile suspects in government and heighten the tension rocking Jubilee.
The tender was signed by former Correctional Services Principal Secretary Alfred Cheruiyot.
Cheruiyot is currently the PS of Post Training and Skills Development in the Ministry of Education.
Anti-graft crusader John Githongo termed the plan a shocking reincarnation of the Anglo Leasing scandal that nearly brought President Mwai Kibaki’s government to its knees in 2006.
“What I am seeing here is like Anglo Leasing all over again,” the former Ethics and Governance Permanent Secretary told the Star yesterday.
“National security is the last refuge of the corrupt. The moment you hear national security therein lies crookedness,” he added
What I am seeing here is like Anglo Leasing all over againFormer Ethics and Governance PS John Githongo
The fictitious contracts were thwarted by EACC detectives when top officers in the Office of the President were just about to pay Sh3.6 billion in advance.
The officials are from the State Department for Correctional Services that oversees prisons, and is domiciled in the Ministry of Interior, headed by Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.
Yesterday, EACC Deputy Chief Executive Officer Michael Mubea confirmed that the file is with Haji and they were only waiting for his signal to arrest the suspects.
“The file was sent to the ODPP two weeks ago. It’s he [Haji] who will determine what happens next,” EACC spokesman Yassin Amaro told the Star.
In an intriguing comment, Prisons commissioner general Isaiah Osugo told EACC detectives that he was not aware of the security contracts.
Some of the make-believe items that the department purportedly wanted to secure are heavy artillery, which is not meant for prison warders.
It includes submachine guns amounting to Sh478.5 million, full-bore target rifles worth Sh342.72 million and bulletproof vest and plastic helmets worth Sh2.2 billion
These security items were never budgeted for.
In addition, some of the firms that landed the lucrative contracts have no valid Pin certificates, tax certificates and were also involved in the forgery of local purchase orders.
The EACC said some of the firms have no known address.
Similarly, there was no authority from either the National Security Advisory Committee or the National Security Council authorising the procurement of the security items, as required by law.
Some of the make-believe items that the department purportedly wanted to secure are heavy artillery, which is not meant for prison warders.
It includes submachine guns amounting to Sh478.5 million, full-bore target rifles worth Sh342.72 million and bulletproof vest and plastic helmets worth Sh2.2 billion
These security items were never budgeted for.
In addition, some of the firms that landed the lucrative contracts have no valid Pin certificates, tax certificates and were also involved in the forgery of local purchase orders.
The EACC said some of the firms have no known address.
Similarly, there was no authority from either the National Security Advisory Committee or the National Security Council authorising the procurement of the security items, as required by law.
Other PSs in focus
The Star established that the Sh7.8 billion advanced payment to Italian firm CMC di Ravenna for the construction of Arror and Kimwarer dams was triggered by Kerio Valley Development Authority chiefs and two former PS.
These are former Devolution and Planning PS Irungu Nyakera and ex- East African Community PS Susan Koech.
Nyakera and Koech wrote to Treasury PS Kamau Thugge on different dates seeking the release of an advance payment to CMC di Ravenna following requests from KVDA.
Koech wrote a letter to Thugge on October 5, 2018, asking the Treasury PS to release Sh3.5 billion as advance payment to the contractor in respect of Kimwarer dam.
In one instance, Firetruss Systems, which indicated it could handle Sh800 million business, was awarded a tender of Sh2.2 billion.
One of the firms, Milways Enterprises, awarded an Sh200 million contract for the supply of G3 slings, is associated with Jubilee nominated MP Millicent Omanga.
A sling is a strap used to carry a gun, especially on the shoulders.
Omanga’s firm was to supply a single sling at Sh5,000 each.
Omanga, a former non-executive director of electricity-producing firm Kengen unsuccessfully ran for Nairobi Women Representative.
She was said to have a formidable financial war chest.
Contacted yesterday by the Star, a defiant Omanga said, “We have not supplied anything or been paid anything.”
"You journalists write what you want to write, then we meet in court,” she said when asked whether she was aware of the EACC probe.
One aspect that baffled investigators was the contracts' sums, which they say is grossly exaggerated.
For instance, a single tear gas canister was to cost Sh5,500. The tender was awarded to a firm known as Autolink Sytem.
This means that if a security officer used the tear gas to disperse, say, rioters, the economy would lose Sh5,400 for each shell.
Police officers used hundreds of tear gas canisters to disperse protesters during and after the twin disputed 2017 presidential polls.
Handcuffs were to cost Sh5,000 each, while riot helmets were to be supplied for Sh6,750 per unit, pepper spray containers at Sh5,000 each and bulletproof vests at Sh45,000 for Level III and Sh40,000 each for Level IV helmets
Rifle cleaning oil was to be supplied by Rappec at Sh500 a litre.
Other persons of interest are former PS Richard Ekai, veteran Provincial Administrator Claire Omollo and Head of Supply Chain Mangiti Mieri.
Ekai, who was later moved to the Ministry of Sports, has already been charged alongside his former boss Hassan Wario in connection with the 2016 Rio Olympics scandal
Omollo served as Secretary for Administration in the ministry and was part of the tender evaluation committee.
Others include, James Mwalo Kodieny, Joseph Kamau Mwangi, Rose Nekesa Muturi, Sarah Kemunto Karandi and Benjamin Njoka.
In the Anglo Leasing scandal, top government official wired billions to paper companies for security contracts ranging from building crime labs to launching and maintaining communications satellites.
These contracts would receive payment from the Kenyan government, despite the fact that no labour was produced and top government officials were alleged to have received kickbacks.
“While I was in government, these ghosts paid back some of the money. But after I left, they reappeared and they sued the government. They even said they would take our embassies and ambassadors' cars would be snatched. When [President] Uhuru [Kenyatta] wanted the Eurobond, he said he would rather pay,” Githongo told the Star yesterday.
He said the looting in the Jubilee administration has been unprecedented
“Never, in the history of Kenya has so much been stolen from so many Kenyans by so few people in such a short time… Corruption in Kenya is no longer has a technical face because the foundation of the theft is in our politics,” Githongo who fled into exile over the Anglo Leasing scandal said.