Cows graze near a stream in Talal, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, on February
27, near the site where the Kimwarer multipurpose dam is supposed to be
constructed. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
After four weeks of investigations, the Sh21 billion Arror and
Kimwarer dams scandal is set to sink three Cabinet secretaries, who will
be asked to step aside, even as the Directorate of Criminal
Investigations (DCI) widens the probe and prepares a final dossier,
sources told the Nation Thursday.
Senior detectives confided to the Nation
Thursday evening that they had “unmasked the real people behind the
scandal”, and that the scam is “much deeper that we thought”.
ECONOMIC CRIMES
The scandal revolves around the construction of two Sh61 billion dams in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.
Work
on the dams has never begun despite the payment of Sh21 billion to a
broke Italian firm, CMC di Ravenna, and an insurance company which had
secured the loans.
So complex have
the investigations been that detectives in Nairobi sought the assistance
of UK’s National Crime Agency, whose mandate is to investigate
organised and economic crimes across regional and international borders.
Help has also been sought from the Italian
government to trace the directors of the troubled company that had been
awarded a tender to build the two dams. CMC di Ravenna has also
abandoned work on the Itare dam in Nakuru County.
“We
just realised we were scratching the surface, but we have now made a
breakthrough,” the source at the DCI, who is familiar with the
investigations, said.
Before the
scope of investigations was widened this week, detectives had hoped to
charge the three Cabinet Secretaries, alongside various Kerio Valley
Development Authority officials and several government mandarins, with
economic crimes.
“Part of the charges will involve failing to carry out due diligence and theft,” said a source.
RESHUFFLE
With
the widening of the investigations, there is speculation within
intelligence circles that President Uhuru Kenyatta will use his State of
the Nation address on Thursday next week to ask all Cabinet Secretaries
and Principal Secretaries embroiled in various scandals to step aside
until they are cleared.
President
Kenyatta used a similar occasion on March 2015 to direct five Cabinet
Secretaries to step aside after their ministries were caught in
corruption scandals. The five were Ms Charity Ngilu (Lands, Housing and
Urban Development), Mr Felix Koskei (Agriculture), Mr Michael Kamau
(Infrastructure and Transport), Mr Davis Chirchir (Energy and Petroleum)
and Mr Kazungu Kambi (Labour, Social Security and Services).
There
are also reports of a major Cabinet reshuffle before the President
breaks for the Easter Holiday. The reshuffle will affect various Cabinet
and Principal secretaries.
The talk
of impending arrests and a reshuffle has heightened anxiety within the
Jubilee administration and threatens to split the party down the middle.
State
House insiders say that by asking the ministers to voluntarily step
aside, President Kenyatta will be giving them a soft landing — before
the law catches up with some of them.
WAR OF WORDS
Among
those who have already been questioned over the dams scandal are
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, Agriculture’s Mwangi
Kiunjuri, and Devolution’s Eugene Wamalwa.
Water
CS Simon Chelugui has not been questioned, but investigators believe he
is a person of interest in regard to Itare Dam. It is not clear which
of these CSs the DCI is treating as suspects.
Investigations
into the scandal have divided politics within Jubilee, with Deputy
President William Ruto saying in public that the war against corruption
is targeting him.
Also, the
President’s supporters have engaged in a war of words with those of the
DP as Mr Kenyatta shows rising frustration over the slow progress of
projects with less than four years to the end of his term.
But,
in a move that cooled the political temperatures, President Kenyatta
visited Mr Ruto at his Harambee Annex office in Nairobi on Tuesday, an
indicator that the Head of State did not want the impending reshuffle to
create political animosity.
Me
Kenyatta has been categorical that the war on corruption will continue,
and that no one, including his close friends, will be spared. Dr Ruto’s
supporters have been asking Mr Kinoti to stop the investigations on the
multi-billion-shilling scandal and concentrate his efforts on “petty
thieves and cattle rustlers”.
ILL-GOTTEN
But
in a rejoinder, Mr Kinoti told off the critics, saying: “I will not be
blackmailed, and I will not keep off. Tell those who are abusing me in
political rallies that Kinoti is unshakeable, and that I will not allow
billionaires to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth in peace.”
A
spending breakdown by the National Treasury shows an advance payment of
Sh7.8 billion was paid out. Of this amount, Sh4.3 billion was released
for the construction of Arror dam and Sh3.5 billion for Kimwarer. The
balance of the money dished out was paid to an insurance firm, Sace, as
security for the construction of the dams.
The money is alleged to have been wired to foreign banks, and Mr Kinoti has been on the trail of the beneficiaries.
Of late, Mr Kenyatta appears to be losing trust in his Cabinet secretaries and has been castigating them in public.
More
so, he has thrown his weight behind the DCI and the Director of Public
Prosecutions, Mr Noordin Haji, illustrating in public rally statements
and actions the divisions within Jubilee Party.
While
speaking on March 5 at the sixth devolution conference in Kirinyaga
County, Mr Kenyatta asked leaders to stop politicising the war against
corruption and leave it to the relevant agencies.
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