•Officers grill former board members of Rift Valley Water Works Development Agency over Itare dam project
•They served in the board between 2012 and 2015 when the project was conceived before it started in 2016
Image: AMOS KERICH
DCI officers on Monday grilled nine former board members of the Rift Valley Water Works Development Agency over the Sh38 billion Itare dam project in Nakuru county.
It has emerged that DCI boss George Kinoti has pushed the questioning of Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa, suspended Treasury CS Henry Rotich and Water PS Joseph Irungu to mid next month.
A source disclosed that Kinoti will issue summonses to the three top officials early January as he moves to unearth the faces behind the scandal.
The ex-board members were grilled for more than four hours, with sources disclosing to the Star that they were put to task to explain why they approved the award of the tender for the multi-billion project to a company that was having financial problems.
Those questioned include Lydia Ntimama, daughter of the late Cabinet Minister William Ole Ntimama, Christine Ndoigo, Chesaina Bartonjo, David Kinuthia, Julius Lamaoni, Nemuel Machuki, Ewoi Lochom and Samwel Kaaleng.
The individuals served in the board between 2012 and 2015 when the project was conceived before it started in 2016.
The nine are among the 11 individuals Kinoti had summoned in a letter dated December 9 to the DCI headquarters on Kiambu Road to shed light on the saga.
“The DCI is currently investigating allegations into the misappropriation of public funds in the construction of Itare dam. We have summoned the individuals to record their statements,” reads a statement sent out by the DCI on Sunday.
Kinoti has said that top officials in the ministries of Water and National Treasury among them CS Wamalwa, Rotich and Irungu will be summoned to provide information on the scandal.
Already sleuths have grilled Water CS Simon Chelugui in relation to the saga. He was questioned for several hours on December 4.
The dam, a flagship project which was meant to supply about 100,000 cubic metres of water per day to the more than 800,000 residents of Kuresoi in Nakuru, stalled. It started in 2016 and was supposed to be completed in 2021.
It stalled after the contractor, Italian firm CMC di Ravenna, went under. The firm applied for bankruptcy in Italy.
The government has already paid Sh11 billion for the project, which stalled at just 30 per cent completion.
CMC di Ravenna is also the firm at the centre of the multi-billion Kimwarer and Arror projects that sunk Rotich and his PS Kamau Thugge.
The two and other officials were charged with several counts of corruption and abuse office after they made advance payment to the bankrupt company.