Big three who owe Kenyans an explanation

On June 5, 2015, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru wrote a letter to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Her bone of contention was a series of suspicious payments from the National Youth Service (NYS) to an array of suppliers of goods and services.

By this time, her letter was just but a mere confirmation of fears already in the public domain of massive loot at the institution. In a span of a few months – between December 1, 2014 and April 1, 2015 – hundreds of millions of public monies allocated to NYS could not be accounted for. Worse still, plans were underway for the theft of another Sh800 million from an institution that held so much promise in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s solution to youth unemployment.

 Month-long investigations by The Standard on Sunday show that rules and regulations set to prevent fraud were manipulated at the behest of who wanted how much money and when. With neither confirmations of deliveries nor vetting of companies that were awarded multi- million tenders, huge sums of money made their way out of NYS into the bank accounts of few individuals seemingly hell bent, in collaboration with public servants, on milking the parastatal dry.

The anatomy of what the DCI and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions term as one of the largest white collar frauds in the history of Kenya reads like a script from a movie. From blatant ordering of junior officers by their seniors to take their orders verbatim and effect them in total disregard to laid down procurement procedures, to the unscrupulous, almost school-boy looting, by the mere addition of several zeros at the end of a figure were used for primitive accumulation of wealth.

The IFMIS system, once touted as the government’s silver bullet to the runaway corruption and greed by state officers, was no match for the individuals with their sights set on an overflowing cookie jar. In four months, Sh791 million was lost, and over the following months, the initial plotters were already looking to making away with another Sh800 million by replicating the same mode.

Tendering committees were infiltrated by outsiders introduced into the system by top guns and within no time, the said strangers operated on first name basis with everyone within the procurement chain of command. And the script was simple and clear; drop the names of senior government officials to determine tendering outcomes and finally spread the loot. Make sure those who prove to be a bump to ill-gotten financial freedom get on the gravy train by throwing them a loose Sh100 million.

The Standard on Sunday reveals just how deep this rot goes and the three top government officials who ought to bear the greatest responsibility. Nelson Githinji the NYS Director General, Peter Mangiti who is the PS at the ministry and Waiguru, the CS for Devolution,owe Kenyans an explanation on how such wanton looting took place under their watch. The three hold the greatest responsibility over this loss. Period!