Kidero, Sonko, Waititu under Sh11.5bn EACC probe

A sitting governor and three former county chiefs are the subjects of court cases in which the EACC believe they illegally acquired a total of Sh11.5 billion.

The anti-graft agency told lawmakers yesterday the county bosses accumulated the wealth but cannot explain how they made the large amount of cash.

They are former Nairobi governor Evan Kidero, his successor Mike Sonko, impeached Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu and Samburu's Moses Lenolkulal.

EACC chairman Eliud Wabukala said the commission is chasing unexplained Sh500 million held by Lenolkulal and Sh8 billion by Kidero.

“For honourable Waititu, former governor for Kiambu, EACC is looking for something like Sh2 billion and for honourable Sonko, former governor for Nairobi, EACC is looking for something like Sh1 billion,” Wabukala said.

The four have all denied EACC's claims that they acquired the wealth illegally. The chairman spoke during a meeting with the Senate Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to discuss the status of the fight against corruption by the agency.

The revelations shocked the committee members, triggering a barrage of questions during their tenure as governors or if some of it was acquired before they assumed office.

“Were these assets acquired during the tenure of these governors? … so that we understand the gravity of this issue such that you go to office and after two years, four governors are able to amass wealth worth Sh11.5 billion,” committee chairman Okong'o Omogeni (Nyamira) asked.

To which EACC director Jackson Mue, who made the presentation, responded, “Much of the wealth were acquired during the period they were serving in those specific offices.”

The four are among the nine former and current governors who are currently battling corruption offences in court for alleged loss of taxpayers’ money amounting to Sh1.2 billion during their tenure.

Other high-profile investigations the commission has finalised and are either pending in court or the DPP’s review include Sh7 billion Kemsa scandal, Sh2 billion loss of imprest cash in Homa Bay and the Sh41 million graft case at the Lake Basin Development Authority.

While the EACC did not disclose the particular assets in question, the four county bosses have had run-ins with the commission, sometimes forced to rush to court to avert their arrest or prosecution.

Court papers filed by the commission on April 13, 2021, alleged that Kidero used part of money allegedly looted from City Hall to build his residential apartments—Gem Apartments.

EACC said part of the loot wired from the county government through a fake legal contract was sent to the former governor though a company known as Cups Limited, which is associated with former governor’s aide.

The company received Sh15 million from City Hall and on January 8, 2014, wired Sh14.40 million to Kidero.

Kidero subsequently transferred the cash to one Virji Meghji for the construction of his luxurious Gem Apartment on Riverside Drive.

“In the affirmative and without prejudice to prayers (a)(b) and (c), a declaration that the plaintiff is entitled to trace the aforesaid amount of Sh14.40 million set out in prayer (b) and being part of prayer (c) herein above into serviced apartments (known as Gem Apartments) on land parcel known as LR.NO.205/46 located within Riverside Area.

But the former governor has always dismissed the EACC assertions that he corruptly acquired his multibillion-shilling wealth.

In the suit filed in court challenging EACC's orders to search his properties in 2018, Kidero narrated how he accumulated his wealth gradually since 1983 when he was employed as a production pharmacist.

Despite being at the helm of many blue chip companies, most of Kidero's money did not come from employment, according to his own account.

He says he earned Sh700 million from investment, Sh270 million from rent, Sh200 million from stocks overseas and Sh300 million from stocks option.

“My prudence did not end at work. As early as 1994 I had learnt the art of saving and investing. I started to make several individuals oversees investments in equity which have continued to grow to date,” Kidero states.

Lenolkulal has also fought several battles with the anti-graft agency. In 2019, he fought off allegations by the EACC that he amassed wealth acquired through Sh2 billion allegedly looted from Samburu county.

According to documents filed in court, the commission claimed that while the governor's official residence in Maralal is poorly maintained and valued at less than Sh5 million, his private residence is posh and valued at more than Sh70 million.

According to EACC records, the governor acquired his first home near Carnivore Restaurant in his first year as governor before suddenly indulging in an investments spree with a massive interest in the real estate.

The property includes a palatial mansion in Karen Fair Acres area an acre worth Sh300 million. The EACC says the property was apparently acquired between 2016 and 2017, towards the end of the governor’s first term in office.

Waititu, who was in 2019 charged with Sh588 million county fund theft, also owns prime priority in the city and beyond. However, it was not clear whether some of the assets the commission targets were acquired using public money.

Last year, Sonko was charged with loss of Sh357 million from City Hall.

On Tuesday, the commission divulged that it recovered public assets worth Sh25 billion in the last five years and has averted loss of Sh30.4 billion worth of assets.

Some 1,000 investigations have been concluded over the same period, with 275 of them taken to court yielding 169 convictions.

The EACC decried budgetary constraints and politicisation of its work as main hindrances to the fight against graft.

-Edited by SKanyara