The rot at City Hall has now hit new levels with fresh documents now indicating how three companies directly linked to senior officers at the county were paid millions of shillings for work that cannot be authenticated.
The documents clearly indicate how the companies were even being paid twice on the same day for ‘supply’ of the same material.
For instance, Larsen Investments that’s linked to a county staff was paid a staggering Sh12 million for ‘supply of drainage material and the same day paid another Sh11,100,000 million again for ‘supply of drainage material.
The amounts were paid on 17th February,2023 all under vote head 5325.
Istanbul Investment which is also linked to the same Bashir was on the same day paid Sh13,320,000 million again for ‘supply’ of drainage material.
Another shocking and absurd payment was made to Lakev Enterprises for ‘supply’ of flood lights.
The company bagged Sh15,478,448 million and another Sh.8,967,692 million for ‘supply’ of flood lights. The monies were wired by the finance department on 13th July, 2023.
It is not clear under what circumstances City Hall needed floodlights and why the monies were paid twice.
The Chief Officer Finance and Economic Planning is believed to be the biggest beneficiary.
Istanbul Investments Limited supplied drainage material again and paid Sh,13,320,000 on 17th February,2023 under vote number 5325.
In total,the county lost Sh,60,866,140 million in dubious payments over supply of air.
Lakev Enterprises as per our insider sources is owned by an officer identified as Kevin Musamia who was employed as a clerical officer but has grown to be an untouchable cartel and tenderpreneur at City Hall.
Musamia developed his cartel instincts when he served as a long term attachee under roads and public works and has managed to build multi-million properties in Nairobi and its environs.
He drives an Audi new shape despite still serving as a clerical officer in the health department.
One of his properties that left many questioning his sources of finance is the state-of-the-art bungalow he has built in Utawala yet he was only staying in a rental house in Roysambu a few years ago.
It can be confirmed that Governor Johnson Sakaja is always in touch with the mentioned individuals and a supplier who understands how mind games are played at City Hall laughed off the launch of garbage collection tracks noting that this has been done for decades just for publicity.
Our investigations further reveal that EACC and DCI officers who got wind of the matter were compromised to drop any further investigations with Governor Johnson Sakaja also believed to be fully aware of the dubious payments.
Unsurprisingly, some of the county staff were implicated in the fake payments of of over sh.
34 Million paid to Larsen Investments and Istanbul again.
The two masterminded the payments that were also sanctioned by Governor Sakaja and Finance Executive Charles Kerich.
Shockingly the staff who runs the companies has been able to amass too much wealth within a short period.
As per media reports, Larsen Investment Limited was paid over 10 Million for Supply and Delivery of drainage materials. The LPO was issued on February 2nd 2023.
This particular payment also brought forth how the senior officers at the county forged signatures to bypass respective sector heads against the regulations of the PFM Act.
The three companies in the latest revelations are also not tax compliant as per our investigations and mostly operate on remote briefcase mode.
Under Kenyan laws, businesses must have a valid Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC) from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to qualify for tenders while the offence of forgery is created and declared by section 349 of the Penal Code and states as follows:
“Any person who forges any document or electronic record is guilty of an offence which, unless otherwise stated, is a felony and he is liable, unless owing to the circumstances of the forgery or the nature of the thing forged some other punishment is provided, to imprisonment for three years.”
The vouchers that were forged included numbers 0050365 amounting to sh13,090,345 under which the payments were made.
At the moment, the county staff are believed to be overconfident because of the protection they claim to have both at EACC and DCI.
This comes at a time when a section of Nairobi MCAs have written to EACC and the DPP to help curb corruption at City Hall.
The disgruntled MCAs want stern action taken against senior officers who are denying Nairobi residents value for their money.
The County is also battling serious revenue issues and the MCAs are blaming Governor Sakaja for being incompetent and not sensitive to issues facing Nairobi residents.
Some of the MCAs have vowed to unleash evidence of massive corruption and impunity at City Hall.
“We have written to EACC and the DPP to swing in action and help City Hall come back to order because it’s now under siege and held captive by cartels who seem untouchable,” an MCA who seats in the Public Accounts Committee said.
Last week, the Kariobangi North MCA Joel Munuve vowed to start signature collection to impeach governor Sakaja over delayed bursary disbursement and incompetency.
The county has been struggling to meet its revenue targets with key officers among them Finance Executive Charles Kerich and his Chief Officer Asha Abdi on the spot.
The escalating graft situation got worse when it was established that some senior officers were chased away by the bank over an unexplained amount of money they wanted to deposit against banking regulations.
The officers failed to prove the source of their money and their efforts to have governor Sakaja who was part of the deal to intervene failed.
Detectives are also pursuing similar cases where huge amounts of money are being wired direct to county officials from suspected corruption dealings.
It also emerged that a contractor by the name Mohammed Ibrahim Siyad who owns rogue and unqualified companies like Buko investments is at the centre of the deal that saw the bank turn away the senior county officers.
Another contractor Hawa Ibrahim with her accomplice Maria, Milbo Lakes Enterprises owned by Millicent Ndinda Ngumbi are also reaping big from dubious payments at City Hall.
The MCAs who have all the details want the EACC and DPP to quickly act on the matter.
The development comes at a time when the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mohamed Amin has publicly questioned how nine other companies were paid millions without proper procedure.
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 irate MCAs have also asked the county public service board to share more light on the officers who have been previously been mentioned on various scandals.
Some of the officers according to the MCAs are Vivian Mavua, Beth Muthoni, Brian Oyando, Ambrose Musau, Denis Muia the one who does work plans for Controller of Budget processing, Richard Mogoko the head of procurement, Stephen Mafura, Mary Maina, Peter Gitau from procurement, Martha Wambugu among others.
The MCAs also through Kenya County Government Workers Union wants to know the fate of some county officials including Lydia Kwamboka the former county attorney, Josephine Kithi, Tony Kimani and Joshua Kimeu who was the head of procurement.
The massive corruption at City Hall has become so pronounced and some MCAs are questioning the role of independent institutions that have been investigating officers especially at the Finance and Procurement Departments.
The county executive is also under scrutiny for misuse of bank overdrafts that do not meet merit from the county assembly and as required by the PFM Act.
Those on the spot over these are Charles Kerich, some county assembly leadership among others.
In August, EACC 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.
According to the EACC, they began investigations into the matter in 2016 and were able to obtain orders that allowed them to determine the value of the suspect’s assets.
According to court records, despite the suspect’s humble salary of Sh55,000, the man received and transferred millions through his family’s and own bank accounts between January 2016 and October 2022.
The county assembly is now increasingly getting convinced that governor Sakaja has failed to demonstrate capacity to run the city.
They are also accusing him of misusing funds aimed at taming environmental pollution,and the influx of cartels at City Hall.
“He is going home if this continues and I am personally going to lead a signature collection to impeach him,” Kariobangi North MCA Munuve said.
Korogocho MCA Abisalom Odhiambo alias Matach said Sakaja and his finance officials have only 24 hours to release the funds failure to which they will paralyze operations at City Hall.
Gatina MCA Kennedy Swaka is on record saying Governor Sakaja is taking MCAs for a ride by playing hide and seek games while at the same time promising ‘heaven’.
“The governor is playing ping pong games with our minds and we have to put an end to this,” Swaka said.
Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai has been vocal and has already dismissed the governor as a big joke.
Alai has observed that Governor Sakaja has no full control of the revenue collection system and that the national government through the National Intelligence Service was allegedly in charge.
“The fact that the governor claims the NIS is collecting revenue is shameless.The governor does not even know who is collecting revenue,” Alai ranted.
He claimed that various departments at the county do not even have printing papers,operations at Pumwani Hospital are horrible and further laughed off the governor’s decision to change Umoja Level II hospital into a Mama Lucy Hospital Annex.
Alai added that Sakaja’s incompetency makes him worse than former governor Mike Sonko.
“I have never seen such an incompetent guy. Sonko is better a million times,”
Interestingly the ad-hoc committee that was established in September 2023 to look into the Revenue Collection System in Nairobi has already poked holes into the revenue system.
The committee announced it’s going to begin its sittings on December 13th.
The ad hoc committee had already declared the current status of revenue as below par and would duel more on establishing possible revenue diversion in its sessions.
Imwatok has already declared the state of revenue collection in Nairobi as one shrouded in secrecy.
He criticized the governor for praising the collection of Sh10 billion in the last financial year, stating that the county should be collecting more than Sh 18billion as of now.
Another officer under the radar of investigative agencies is Richard Mogoko, the head of procurement.
The procurement department has been under sharp criticism from suppliers and contractors over bribery and irregular tender awards