Former devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru at Parliament Buildings
on March 24, 2016. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Former devolution minister Anne Waiguru ordered that an events
company be paid Sh44 million for organising a function that did not take
place, MPs investigating corruption at the Youth Fund heard Thursday.
A
director at the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Mr Clement Ayungo,
told the Public Investments Committee that the board chairman, Mr Bruce
Odhiambo, told him that Ms Waiguru had instructed him to ensure payments
were made to Saverin Holdings Ltd although a rebranding event it was
supposed to organise had been cancelled.
“He
(Odhiambo) told me he had received a call from Anne or State House, I
can’t recall who but it was one of them, and told me to pay for the
event which the minister had herself cancelled,” he said.
The
committee also heard that Ms Waiguru ignored the advice of the Ethics
and Anti-corruption Commission that the suspended Youth Fund chief
executive Ms Catherine Namuye was unfit to hold a public office since
she had “serious integrity issues.”
Ms Namuye and Mr Odhiambo have been adversely mentioned in connection with the loss of the fund’s Sh180 million.
Ms
Waiguru denied knowledge of the anti-corruption commission advice and
also denied any relationship with a director of the fund, Mr Michael
Wamai, whose firm Lukenya Earth Movers won a Sh137 million contract with
the National Youth Service (NYS), which is subject to investigations in
connection with the Sh791 million NYS scandal.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH
MPs
also questioned Mr Ayungo on the death of Mr Simon Mwangi a driver at
the Youth Fund, who died in mysterious circumstances, when the two
attended a “pool party” at the South Coast.
PIC
chairman Adan Keynan said Mwangi’s death had something to do with the
loss of the Sh180 million, but Mr Ayungo protested, saying his death was
an accident, which happened as they swam in the wee hours of the night
at the Kivuli Cottage.
Ms Waiguru
appeared to heap the blame on the suspicious transactions on his former
Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti, who he accused of failing to inform
her of the fraudulent activities.
“He
may have told me verbally which was informal. All formal communications
should be in writing and I don’t remember seeing any,” she said.
Her
statement was in contrast to Mr Mangiti’s own testimony in which he
accused his former boss of trying to interfere with investigations by
insisting that investigations into the Sh180 million loss be handled
internally, although three investigative agencies were already probing
it.
The former CS said however that
she only ordered for an administrative report in addition to the ongoing
investigations by the EACC, anti-banking fraud unit and the Directorate
of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and that she did not at any point
demand that the internal process takes precedence.
Mr
Keynan asked Ms Waiguru to explain what action she took upon learning
of the alleged fraud through a copy of a letter by Mr Odhiambo
suspending Ms Namuye.
The former CS,
who resigned under public pressure following corruption allegations at
her ministry, said she became aware of the suspected fraud three weeks
before she quit the Cabinet by which time she couldn’t have done
anything.
“The EACC was already
investigating the matter. What was a minister supposed to do? If I had
done anything maybe you would now be telling me I was interfering with
investigations,” she said.
The former
powerful CS told the MPs that she would have been reluctant to be a
whistleblower on the suspected fraud, since those who sounded the alarm
on corruption ended up being treated like the culprits.
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