Mombasa Governor Joho faces fresh probe on 'flawed' award of tenders

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho at Integrity Centre in Nairobi where he was grilled by EACC. [PHOTO: GOVEDI ASUTSA/STANDARD]

NAIROBI: The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has widened its scope of investigations on Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho to include allegations he has influenced tender awards over the last two years.

According to the EACC, Joho allegedly ensured the tenders were awarded to his relatives and close associates. Anti-graft detectives have directed the county government to furnish detectives with the full list of tenders awarded and to which firms.

EACC's Mombasa office through Hasan Khalid wrote to the county secretary on April 15 on the new line of investigation and asked for a copy of the budget approved by the assembly, procurement plans and a list of payments made through the Integrated Financial Management Information System.

The commission also demanded a complete list of all the big tenders awarded by the county government for the financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15.

CONTROVERSIAL ALLOCATION

Tuesday, Joho missed the Devolution Conference's opening ceremony in Kisumu to respond to the EACC summons over the alleged irregular allocation of a public market to a private developer.

"The grilling dwelt on the market but they asked me about the procurement issues. I replied that procurement details are public documents that can be made available to anybody and you don't need a governor to get them," Joho told The Standard Tuesday. "They must have realised that they goofed by linking me to the alleged grabbing of the market and now they are digging to see if they can get anything else on me."

The governor, who spent close to two hours at the EACC offices at Integrity Centre, Nairobi, said Mwembe Tayari Market, which is at the centre of a dispute, belongs to the county government.

Joho clarified the only controversial allocation happened 20 years ago, long before he took office, when the first floor of the market was allocated to a private developer. He said he had given the EACC all the relevant documents.

Joho is the second governor to be questioned over graft allegations by the EACC, after Nairobi’s Evans Kidero. He was accompanied by his lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi and several ODM leaders. "The market was allocated in 1996 and had nothing to do with us, therefore what we have done this morning is to share the information. I was a very young man at that time," Joho said.

Joho said when construction on the property commenced, tenants who occupied the ground floor of the market sued both the council and the developer asking.

"This was in the High Court of Kenya in Mombasa, in Civil Case number 188 of 1997, in which the council and the developer were sued as defendants," he said.

The governor said he has sued the EACC for defamation.