Is yet another Kemsa scandal in the offing?

Yet another scandal — this time involving an insider in middle-level management — is brewing at Kemsa, hot on the heels of the Covid-19 billionaires' saga. The middle-level manager was recently overheard bragging that he controls the procurement process at the organisation by manipulating systems. The fellow himself isn’t in the procurement department. So audacious is he that earlier this week, he dared his seniors to go with an independent supply tender evaluation process that favoured a supplier the voluble chest-thumper didn’t back. The immodest officer rumoured to be working for a certain power broker, has sworn that unless his preferred candidate wins it, he’ll have some heads rolling. Maybe, it is time the no-nonsense EACC boss Twalib Mbarak spearhead a grand housecleaning at the agency.

There seems to be trouble at a parastatal in the energy sector. It is said that one of the agency bosses has recently moved assets worth millions of shillings from the parastatal headquarters and another location slightly outside Nairobi. Several trips are said to have been made by pick-ups to collect the materials, which included building materials, iron and scrap metal. It’s said the materials were moved under the guise of cleaning up the areas. This was in blatant breach of the Public Procurement Asset Disposal Act, 2015. Moles tell Corridors that the boss moved the materials for own benefit; something insiders say is outright theft of property. Maybe the good boss has forgotten the anti-graft grand cleaning in that sector. Keep it here for part two of this scandal.

The family of a dead politician is threatening to arrest a Nyanza politico for soliciting funds for burial arrangement of their kin. The beleaguered man claimed to be the spouse of the late politician and has solicited funds to finance the burial through a WhatsApp group. It has since emerged the man was not the husband but was only having an affair with the politician. A recent obituary in the papers did not list the man anywhere amongst the relatives of the leader. The bereaved family is now threatening to have the man behind bars if he will not refund thousands so far collected.

MPs are up in arms against a Cabinet secretary whom they accuse of treating them with disdain. The lawmakers claim the minister has not only failed to involve them in key functions in his docket but also mistreated them when they attended such events. The lawmakers cited a recent case where they attended a ministry function and found their names missing at the clearance desk. Only after a last-minute intervention were they allowed in. To their surprise, there were no seats, forcing them to stand for 45 minutes before leaving in protest.