‘Deadly’ Ghana mission: DCI probes City Hall officials, family over Gathara’s death at JKIA

Detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are investigating the circumstances surrounding the sudden death of the late Nairobi County Engineer Charles Ngugi Gathara who collapsed and die at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) lounge after an evening of merry-making where he, alongside his colleagues blew up to Sh156,000 at the JKIA lounge sipping high end alcoholic beverages, The Informer Media Group can authoritatively reveal.

At the time, Gathara was the chairman of Nairobi County’s tender evaluation committee that saw a condemned Accra based solid waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited controversially awarded the multi-billion tender and were headed on a benchmarking tour.

A Nairobi High Court has since issued interim injunction barring the implementation and execution of the tender until the matter is heard and determined.

However, our investigations have established that the contractor has since moved to Dandora Dumpsite and taken over operations including hiring of machinery and equipment belonging to previous garbage contractors.

Gathara, 49, collapsed at the airport lounge on February 19, 2026 at 2235 hours after consuming refreshments with colleagues ahead of a planned benchmarking mission to Accra, Ghana, aimed at studying integrated waste management systems.

Reports indicate that colleagues, despite witnessing Gathara’s deteriorating condition, proceeded with the Ghana trip,

“Investigations are ongoing. Statements have been recorded from all those who were accompanying the deceased and were present at the airport. Also, a number of members of the family have been questioned,” KAPU Force Commanding Investigation Officer Bridget Kanyai told The Informer Media Group.

She further clarified that they are awaiting results from the Government Chemist that will show the toxicological analysis and the actual cause of death.

Among those were in the Ghana trip and have since been questioned by the DCI include; Walter Omwenga (Deputy Director, Environment and Final Disposal), Frida Nzomo (Procurement), Maurene Njeri (CEC, Green Nairobi), Pius Tanui, John Paul Malawi (Director for Environment), Hibrahim Otieno (Chief Officer, Environment).

Gathara was pronounced dead before boarding the flight.

Results of the postmortem conducted by Government Pathologist Dr. Peter Ndegwa at Montezuma Funeral Home showed Gathara died from acute gastritis.

The autopsy results further indicated that he had an enlarged heart and that he was overweight.

Investigators are now relying on the toxicological analysis to establish the actual cause of death.

DCI detectives already submitted specimens drawn from the stomach fluid, blood, kidney and liver to the Government Chemist for analysis and they are awaiting for the results.

Toxicology tests have been requested to further clarify the cause.

At the same time, investigators are reviewing CCTV footage and lab results to piece together the final events.

Separately, internal reviews have reportedly flagged flaws in the tendering process that saw Zoomlion Ghana Limited awarded the contract despite being the only bidder, including lack of commercial safeguards, absence of dedicated funding, and sole sourcing despite the firm’s previous debarment by the World Bank for corruption between 2013 and 2015.

Documents show the award notification was issued in US Dollars, raising further concerns about financial and operational risks.

Additionally, the tender lacked proper local preference provisions, and public participation—mandatory for projects exceeding five years—was reportedly absent.

Also, on eligibility criteria under section 1.3 of the tender document, subsection (ii) requires that potential bidders should not have been blacklisted.

“Individual or consortium organisations submitting response must meet the qualification criteria below; ii). Should not have been blacklisted or debarred from participating in tenders by any national/ state government agencies or autonomous bodies or Institutions,” the tender document provides.

“This is the international bid document that went out worldwide tender advertised publicly on both on PPIP and county websites for everyone to apply. To conclude a procurement process there is something called due diligence, meaning you must physically ascertain that the bidder has the capacity presented in his/her documents before a contract is signed once satisfied that he/she has capacity to deliver This is the reason why the Kenyan team as indicated in your article are travelling to Ghana,” Omwenga wrote back to The Informer Media Group following our initial exposé and before his team left for Ghana after the tender award had already been awarded to Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

We have since established that in 2013 the World Bank debarred Zoomlion Ghana Limited and two affiliates, Accra Compost Plant and Zoom Alliance for two years after finding that the company had paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and processing of invoices for the World Bank-financed Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project in Liberia.

This meant Zoomlion and its subsidiaries were temporarily barred from bidding on any World Bank-funded contracts worldwide.

Zoomlion acknowledged the misconduct and entered into a Negotiated Resolution Agreement with the Bank, accepted responsibility, and agreed to strengthen compliance with integrity standards, leading to its eventual removal from the blacklist in 2015.

Back home in Ghana, Zoomlion’s relationship with state agencies also drew heavy scrutiny.

Investigative reporting and Ghanian Auditor-General audits uncovered multiple questionable contracts, including a Youth in Sanitation Module under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), where Zoomlion was paid from public funds while the actual service delivery and value for money were widely disputed.

Some whistleblowers and analysts argued that Zoomlion’s dominant position and sole sourcing for sanitation contracts created opportunities for inflated payments and a lack of competition or accountability in the sector.

In addition, the Ghanian Auditor-General characterised certain contracts between Zoomlion and state bodies as unjustifiable, noting instances where similar services were already covered under existing arrangements yet additional funds were paid. Police investigations were at one point launched into dubious fumigation agreements.

In another glaring procurement flaw, in the bid document, despite inserting a veiled clause that the request for proposal is “open to all qualified and interested tenderers both local and international” on page 7, item 3 of the bid document, as a requirement of the law for both local and international tenders, the initials of Open National Tender (ONT) or Open International Tender (OIT) for international tenders respectively are glaringly missing.

Open international tenders are done only when there is insufficient capacity locally also by ensuring the tender has a margin of preference to cushion local companies.

“Tendering will be conducted under Request for Proposal method using a standardized Request for Proposal document and is open to all qualified and interested tenderers both local and international. Bidders may submit their bids as a consortium as per the tender data sheet,” the tender bid reads in part.

Also, insiders contend that a project that takes above five years requires public participation and approval by the Nairobi County Assembly before implementation by the executive upon cabinet adoption and inclusion of recommendations by the Assembly.

Gathara had been serving as Deputy Director of Nairobi County’s Water and Sanitation Department before his appointment to chair the evaluation committee.

He was laid to rest on February 27, 2026, in his Gathondo village in Embu County. As DCI continues to interrogate City Hall officials and Gathara’s family, the inquiry aims to establish both the circumstances of his death and any potential links to alleged procurement lapses, shedding light on governance and accountability in Nairobi County’s sanitation projects