70 Nairobi County Staffs Grilled by DCI over Suspected Diversion of Revenue

The Director of Criminal Investigations has in the last few months grilled at least 70 Nairobi City County Officers.

Sources privy to the development indicate that the senior county officers have recorded statements in relation to irregular payments, irregular procurement, proceeds of crime in form of assets and suspected revenue diversion.

Those who top the list and have recorded statements more than once include Chief Officer in charge of Finance, Asha Abdi, Head of Treasury Martha Wambugu, Chief Cashier, Shadrack Nyamai and Peter Gitau who is also in the procurement department and has since been moved from his department.

Finance Executive Charles Kerich, Head of Procurement Richard Mogaka and Deputy Director and some senior county officials have also recorded statements.

The DCI is believed to have made progress in the investigations and has forwarded some files to the Director of Public Prosecution.

Another multi-agency team comprising the DCI and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has also forwarded some files to the DPP.

According to our source, the City Hall staff issued contradicting statements while some passed blame to their seniors or juniors while some denied interacting with documents presented to them.

Both the DCI and EACC escalated their investigation targeting City Hall staff after the former in August, obtained orders to freeze a city hall employee’s wealth of approximately Sh 643.2 million.

According to the EACC, the Nairobi County Development Control Officer earning about Sh 55,000 monthly, was unable to satisfactorily explain how he was able to raise such riches.

It emerged that the officers suspect fortune was distributed across over 10 bank and M-Pesa accounts, apartments, land, and luxurious vehicles.

EACC suspected the man abused his position at City Hall to acquire such a large fortune.

Currently the DCI is pursuing at least 15 senior county officers who have amassed questionable properties.

Similarly, the Asset and Recovery Agency established under Section 53 of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act No. 9 of 2009 whose mandate is the identification, tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime is keenly following up on the matter.

Those being pursued for possible proceeds of crime include Asha Abdi, Martha Wambugu, Kevin Musamia who is a clerical officer Head of Procurement Richard Mogoko.

Others are, Ambrose Musau, Vivian Mavua, Beth Muthoni, Denis Muia, Brian Oyando, one who does work plans for the county, Richard Mogoko the head of procurement who has gained massive from corruption dealings, his main clients are suppliers and contractors from the Somali community and a few Kikuyus, he is currently building state-of-the-art-house.

Others are Stephen Mafura, easy panty remover Mary Maina Wangui girlfriend to former acting county secretary Jairus Musumba,

In November, the detectives summoned 11 officers for grilling at its headquarters. This was in relation to theft of amounts totaling Sh 60 million.

The commission has also been following up on suspected dubious payments of Sh100 million paid to proxy companies associated by senior county officials.

The officers who were summoned are Francis Irungu (Supply Chain Management) Rachel Mutambaki (security) Nelley Odanda (Human Resource Department) Alex Kayera (Administration HR) Augustine Wafula (Devolution), Alukwe (Administration,Aggrey Sagwa (Supply Chain) Leonard Biwot (Supply Chain)Joshua Kimeu (supply chain).

Others are Caleb Obumba (supply chain and Bernard Owiti (Human Resource).

The DCI is also probing a contractor by the name  Mohammed Ibrahim Siyad who is believed to own briefcase companies like Buko investments which is at the center of a deal that saw senior officers kicked away by a bank.

Another contractor by the name Hillary Joseph Mutisya who was recently paid millions money on garbage, others include Milbo Lakes Enterprises owned by Millicent Ndinda Ngumbi are also reaping big from dubious payments at City Hall.

Some of the vouchers signed by senior county officials and are under investigations include;  voucher  number 0050365 amounting to sh13,090,345, voucher 050366 amounting to Sh11, 793, 104, and 050364 amounting to sh10, 908, 620.

The vouchers according to a series of documents in our documents indicate that the payments were made and a further trail by the DCI shows that some county officials received kickbacks from the proceeds.

The companies that were paid belongs to county staff.

Detectives from the Bank-Fraud unit and Asset Recovery are still following up on other suspected fraudulent payments.

Previously, the DCI  through the then head of investigations Bureau at the DCI headquarters David Birech, wrote to Sakaja demanding a list of tender documents, issued to nine companies suspected to have been used to siphon millions from City Hall.

The nine companies are Brigit West Limited, Future Link Limited, AR Pharmaceuticals Limited, Larsen Investment Company, Burasha General Suppliers Limited, Tweem Limited, Cloud Mobile Technologies Limited, Istanbul Investment Limited and Ramecon Engineering Limited.

The DCI is still investigating requisitions by the user department, award contracts, delivery and inspection reports and all local purchase orders.

The DCI is also probing the possibility that senior officers at the county are colluding with top banks in the country to divert revenue.

The county has three accounts at Cooperative Bank, another account at Equity and another suspected secret account where diverted revenue is allegedly deposited.

Both Asha Abdi and Martha are the signatories and are suspected to have colluded with officers from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to divert funds.

KRA officials who appeared before the County Assembly’s Ad Hoc committee made it clear that once the funds are collected, they are transferred into the County Revenue Fund (CRF) where Martha and Asha are signatories.

The authority was involved in the collection of revenue on behalf of NCCG from March 16, 2020, to September 15, 2022, as per the deed of transfer.

KRA was to exit in September 2022 following the expiry of the deed but entered into a mutual agreement with Governor Sakaja to help the county.

Giving details, Annastaciah Githuba, Deputy Commissioner of the County Revenue Division who appeared before the ad hoc committee said that she leads a team of nine people who are collecting revenue on behalf of the county.

This comes only a few days after the Controller of Budget put the county on the spot for spending zero on development during the first quarter of the 2023/2024 Financial Year.

During the period, Governor Sakaja spent 176.8 million on domestic and 11.9 million on foreign travel, she added that the Nairobi boss also spent 51.8 million on fuel alone, and Sh28 million on hospitality while at the same time, nothing was spent on development expenditure despite an allocation of Sh14 billion.

The spending was 73.7 per cent of all the funds the Budget controller authorized alluding to the uncontrolled impunity at the county.

The hit at City Hall has now seen a number of officers turn against each other and pass the blame in counter accusations.

It has already emerged that Kerich and Asha Abdi who have collaborated in many irregular tender deals are now in a rare cold war with Kerich strategically trying to pass the mess to Asha Abdi.

An internal memo in our possession indicates how Kerich used the gaps in the PFM regulations to evade accountability and instead pass the ball to the next available victim.

In an internal memo referencing management responses to the Auditor General questions, Kerich seems to be passing the ball to Asha and chief officer revenue administration.

The memo dated 8th December, 2023 is about the financial malpractices for the 2022/23 financial year with most involving events that happened when the current administration took over in August 2022.

Asha Abdi and Peter Gitau are also said to have fallen out after Gitau as per our sources told the DCI ‘the true picture’ of events at the Finance department.

On the other hand, Head of Procurement Richard Mogoko is said to have denied having interacted with any documents emanating from the finance departments and some about companies that have been paid million for work that cannot be traced.

Mogoko is believed to have passed the blame to Asha Abdi and Martha Wambugu.

Governor Sakaja who is aware of the simmering disagreements and apparent fallout amongst his senior officers is also believed to be a worried man following recent negative publicity linking the county to graft.

The Governor has since banned any media interviews that he has not approved.

In a memo dated Tuesday, December 19, Acting County Secretary and Head of Public Service Patrick Analo asked all County Executive Committee (CEC) members, chief officers and county directors to seek Sakaja’s permission before media engagements.

Analo insisted that they were not muzzling the media, but it was meant to enhance coordination, arguing that it would be good for every officer to be guided on what to say about a particular department.

A staff member who is close to the governor said there is growing tension and the governor is a worried man.

Some staff who talked to us in private vowed to continue leaking documents that touch on corrupt dealings at the county.