Roads engineer on the spot over alleged questionable wealth
An engineer working with one of the roads agencies in Nakuru County could be walking into a tightrope after some Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Assets Recovery Agency detectives were hinted of his alleged questionable massive wealth he has amassed allegedly through kickbacks from contractors.
The official, who sources indicate could be summoned to the EACC’s Integrity Center for grilling, is said to have developed several properties in the city and its environs, including a recently built expensive hotel in Ruiru along Thika Road, Kiambu County.
The engineer, also reported to have built multimillion residential flats along Thika Road through proxies, using alleged kickbacks from roads contractors, could lose the wealth after those in the know revealed that the probe may end up with freezing of the assets, including those held by proxies, if not prosecution.
This comes even as it emerges that EACC and the ARA are training their guns on a number of officials working in the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) engineers and other officials at the head offices at Bara Bara Plaza as well as regional offices over alleged graft.
Besides the investigations, several others have been paraded in court and their wealth frozen after they were found to own property and savings worth millions of shillings which are not proportionate to their known income.
For instance, early this month Benson Muteti Masila, an Engineer and KeRRA Coast Regional Manager have his assets frozen after he was accused of amassing wealth to the tune of Sh952 million through receiving kickbacks from contractors awarded tenders in Kilifi, Mombasa and Makueni Counties among other unexplained sources.
The properties allegedly acquired between February 2009 and December 2018 include bank and MPesa deposits, apartments, motor vehicles, insurance policies and listed shares.
“Cumulatively the above unexplained wealth comprises bank and M-Pesa deposits amounting to Ksh.567,626,872.55, landed properties valued at Ksh.347,040,000.00 motor vehicles valued at Ksh.5,350,000.00, listed shares valued at Ksh.2,240,000.00 and insurance policies with a maturity value of Ksh.30,106,952.44,” EACC says in court documents.
The official is also alleged to have used his wife Zipporah Mwongeli Muteti and his associate companies namely Mumbe Junior Academy Limited, Mumbe Boys High School, Mumbe Girls High School, and Mumbe Hardware & Supplies Limited as conduits to launder mon
Two months ago, a Nairobi court froze property worth millions associated with a senior employee at the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) that is suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) which is also pursuing several other graft related cases linked to officials from the highly budgeted parastatals, had asked the court to freeze the assets and bank accounts belonging to Margaret Wanja Muthui who is the Deputy Director of Supply Chain Management at KERRA.
The agency says Muthui used Esther Wagio Njunge, Lighthouse Trading Company, Grace Ndiritu, Mercy Nyambura and Cynthia Nyambura who are her accomplices.
Justice James Wakiaga of the AntiCorruption Court in Nairobi issued orders freezing a total of Sh93.4 million in three accounts – one belongs to Njunge and the other two are for Muthui and Lighthouse Trading Company.
Following the development, city lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi said if President Uhuru Kenyatta was serious in fighting corruption, then he should order a probe into all KURA, KENHA and KERRA officers since they are the biggest beneficiaries of Chinese kickbacks.
“If we are serious about fighting corruption then we must go after EVERYONE who works in @KURAroads@KeNHAKenya and @KeRRA_Ke…Chinese contractors inflate Road tenders and give Kenyan officials up to 30% kickback!,” Ahmednasir wrote on his Twitter page.
Further, it has emerged that a top finance manager and three engineers at the Kenya Rural Roads Authority have been put under the EACC radar over alleged misappropriation of money which the taxpayer may have lost approximately Sh300 million.
The senior top finance official has already appeared at the Integrity Center, the nerve of EACC for questioning while the other three are expected to receive their respective summons for grilling in relation to alleged dubious tendering and payments of roads projects.
