Seven Governors To Be Charged With Corruption

SEVEN governors, five Cabinet Secretaries and four Principal Secretaries implicated in corruption deals are scheduled to be arraigned in the Anti-Corruption Court in two weeks.

This follows the completion of investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The 16 are among the list of 175 senior government officials in the EACC dossier released by President Uhuru Kenyatta four weeks ago.

EACC chairman Mumo Matemu yesterday also revealed that 13 legislators, four Judiciary staffers, one senator, and 11 other senior government officials are among those to be arraigned in court.

He said that a total of 93 individuals are under investigation and will be charged in court.

A total of 21 individuals, including three National Social Security Fund officials, four Judiciary officials, nine National Early Warning and Safety System officials, two Immigration department staffers, and three individuals involved in the Kenya Airports Authority Greenfield project will also be charged in court next week.

Evidence related to 15 others, including one from the Kisumu county government, seven from the NPSC and seven from the Machakos county government is under review by the Director of Public Prosecutions’ technical team or EACC Evidence analysts.

Suspended Cabinet Secretaries Davis Chirchir, Michael Kamau, Charity Ngilu, Felix Koskei, and former Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, as well as suspended PS Nduva Muli, among others, have already appeared before EACC for questioning.

They have all denied any wrongdoing.

Kenya Airports Authority MD Lucy Mbugua was also interrogated by EACC detectives.

Kimemia denied involvement in any corruption deals, saying an alleged Sh1 billion procurement scam he is implicated in happened after he left the Interior ministry and was Secretary to the Cabinet. He also denied ever owning any Kenya Railways house.

Engineer Kamau, who was also interrogated by EACC detectives, declined to address the media when he walked out of his grilling session, saying only that his Twitter account had been hacked.

Kamau was interrogated over the payment of Sh700 million to a contractor of the 20-kilometre Garissa-Modika-Kuno road, even before the completion of the project.

He is alleged to have authorised the full payment to the Aegis Construction Company after only 11 kilometres had been done.

He is also accused of interfering with the consultants’ design of the Kaukuywa-Kaptama-Kapsokwony-Kimilili roads.

Suspended KAA boss Mbugua said she was called to clarify issues on the procurement process of the Duty Free shops at JKIA when she was the CEO.

– See more at: The Star