• The KPA boss is being grilled at the DCI headquarters over graft-related issues.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Kenya Ports Authority MD Daniel Manduku has been taken for questioning by DCI detectives.
The MD was nabbed by Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives in Nairobi on Monday after months of investigations into leased extra storage space for containers by KPA.
The KPA boss, who is becoming the last high-flying government official to be charged for corruption, was detained at the DIC headquarters before being moved to Muthaiga police station for processing.
Manduku is facing an array of charges including abuse of office, willful disobedience of statutory duty, neglect of official duty, breach of trust and conspiracy to defeat justice.
Manduku is accused alongside Kevin Lewis, the Kenya Revenue Authority official commissioner in charge of customs and border control.
The KPA MD, according to the charge sheet, is accused of unlawfully recommending the gazettement of Nairobi Inland Cargo Terminal (NICT) as KPA's peripheral facility yet the firm did not tender.
Manduku's action to endorse NICT saw seven bidders who had tendered for the provision of container warehouse services for KPA in Nairobi unfairly kicked out.
The KPA boss is also accused of colluding with Lewis to defeat justice by causing the payment of sh3.1 million for KPA's peripheral facility license for Michel Cotts Freight Kenya Ltd.
The payment, the detectives established, was to correct illegality of nonpayment of the same that was under investigation by the DCI. The payment was allegedly made between December 31, 2019, and January 27, 2020.
“Between 21 March 2019 and 14 June 2019, within the Republic of Kenya, jointly with others not before the court, connived to unlawfully gazette Nairobi Inland Cargo Terminal (NICT) as a Kenya Ports Authority peripheral facility which facility did not meet the requirements for gazettement,” reads one of the draft charges.
Manduku is also accused of neglecting duty as the chief accounting officer of KPA by failing to observe that due process was followed during the appointment and gazettement of NICT.
Lewis faces a separate charge of willfully neglecting his duties by failing to adhere to regulations governing the appointment of a facility as a KPA peripheral storage facility.
The KRA official is said to have illegally gazetted Mitchell Cotts as KPA's peripheral storage facility despite the warehouse failing to meet set requirements with respect to separate entry and exit areas.
The official also aided the gazettement of NICT yet the facility did not meet requirements with respect to a customs where house.