Kiambu’s County Governor, Ferdinand Waititu (Alias Baba Yao) was faced with Corruption allegations in 2019. Governor Waititu alongside his wife and daughter – were being investigated over the embezzlement of Ksh588 million from county coffers, believed to have been siphoned through irregular procurement for the upgrading of several roads in Kiambu County.
The governor was slapped with cash bail, as the courts gather evidence. He was eventually impeached.
The Director of Public Prosecution, Nordin Haji uncovered in July 2019 a mega-graft Scandal on the procurement of two dams; Arwor and Kimwarer Dams. The graft case led Kenya losing 19 billion Tax Payer’s money. The scandal involved high profile people in the government such as the then CS Of treasury Henry Rotich and 28 others. The allocated budget of about Sh19.7B that was lost through this graft was meant to construct two dams, Arwor and Kimwarer Dams in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
The Ministry of Lands in February 2019 headed by lands CS Farida Karoney, could not account for the loss of 20 billion Tax Payers money. The Country’s Auditor General Edward Ouko was the one who delivered details regarding this scandal. In the report, a lot of discrepancies and inaccuracies were sited in the ministry’s June 30th, 2018 financial Statement.
The Department of Defence in October 2010, uncovered a bribery scandal involving senior Kenya Defence Force Officers in a corrupt deal for the purchase of armoured personnel carriers from South African company OTT Technologies (Pty) Ltd for a sum of Sh1.6 billion. Several high-ranking officers accused of taking bribes by OTT Technologies (Pty) Ltd, were retired by the Minister of Defence Yusuf Haji in January 2011.
This matter was referred to the parliament for further investigation. A Report on Military Modernization Programmes by the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations released in The September 2012, found that the irregular procurement of the PUMA M26 armoured carriers had violated multiple sections of the Public Procurement Act 2005 and that OTT Technologies (Pty) Ltd’s business partners in Kenya had been identified by the US Government as being involved in international crime and drugs smuggling.
It was recommended that OTT Technologies (Pty) Ltd be barred from doing any business with the Government of Kenya in the future. The same company, in 2014 was accused by the Mozambique government for irregular tax and export control activities in the transport of similar armoured carriers through Mozambique for onward trafficking into Africa.
Allegations surfaced in October 2012 that top Foreign Affairs ministry officials had ignored land offered by Japan that could have saved the country loss of Sh1.1 billion. This scandal led to the resignation of the then Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula.
The Triton oil scandal became public in January 2009. It involved unauthorized release of oil by Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) without informing its financiers. The release of the oil occurred in 2008 when Triton Oil Company was allowed by KPC to withdraw oil amounting to Kshs 7.6 billion. The company collapsed after a short while, withdrawing the oil and selling it to the market.
Triton Oil was owned by Yagnesh Devani. Kenya issued a warrant to arrest him uppon this discovery. As of January 2010 he was at large and believed to be in hiding overseas.
The sale of imported maize scandal became public in January 2009. The ban on importation of maize was lifted in late 2008 by the government to allow capable businessmen to import maize to supplement the local produce that was below the minimum required to satisfy the local market.
In early 2009 however, after parliamentary debate on a maize scandal, William Ruto was accused by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale of illegally selling maize. All the documents bearing the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) seal that linked Mr Ruto to the illegal sale of maize were provided and accepted by Parliament’s deputy speaker.
It was alleged that Briefcase millers, existing only on paper, were given huge quantities of maize by the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR). They accomplished this by inflating their milling per-hour capacity and having 4 Permanent Secretaries approve them. These millers and local businesses were either awarded quotas by the SGR or import permits by the NCPBK respectively were alleged to have re-directed the bags of maize outside the country as well to avoid price controls stated by the government and thus make better profits.
The ministries and departments that were implicated included; Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Special Programmes, Ministry of Finance & Treasury department and the Ministry of the Prime Minister. The Office of the Prime Minister gave instructions not to return the contaminated maize back to South Africa and was retained in Kenya to be destroyed. The puzzle is, was the maize destroyed?
The Grand Regency Scandal broke loose in June 2008. The Central Bank of Kenya was alleged to have secretly sold a luxury hotel in Nairobi to an unidentified group of Libyan investors for more than 4 billion Kenyan Shillings way below the appraised market value. The then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya had negotiated the sale, and was censured in a near-unanimous motion by the Parliament of Kenyan, though he vehemently denied the charges.
This follows on the heels of the Safaricom IPO, overseen by Kimunya, which has been alternatively praised and questioned for possible corruption in the execution of the sale. Safaricom was and still is the largest mobile phone service provider in Kenya. Having operated with a near-government monopoly for many years. The government of Kenya sold its 50% stake in Safaricom in the IPO.
WikiLeaks released documents in September 2007 exposing a 500 million Kenyan shilling payroll fraud at Egerton University as well as the subsequent cover up. The matter was a subject of an ongoing legal dispute in the High Court for sometime. Was the money recovered if at all the allegations were true? Details of this case remain scanty upto date.
The parliament on 2007-09-06 passed the Statutory Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, restricting Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission from investigating offences committed prior to May 2003. The Goldenberg, Anglo-Leasing scandals and other major cases were exempted from this restriction. This move was not received well by the anti-corruption campaigners; The former chief executive of the Transparency International Kenya Chapter, Mwalimu Mati, declared that “grand corruption has swallowed the government and parliament that Kenyans elected to fight it in 2002”. This move sparked a public outrage as well and the then president, Mwai Kibaki announced that he was going to veto the bill.