Five mega corruption scandals that rocked Kenya in 2016

Just when you thought Kenya’s endemic corruption problem could not get any worse, the country sank to a new low in 2016 with more mega graft scandals coming to light.

The President lamented about the lackluster performance of the Judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney General, the Auditor General and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

Mr Kenyatta defended his administration, saying he had allocated enough resources and done more than what any other administration in the country’s history had done to fight corruption.

“Now do you expect me to go and set up a firing squad at Uhuru Park so that people can be happy? Are we not a country that respects the rule of law?” posed an exasperated Kenyatta.

A year earlier in March 2015, the President had appeared to take the bull by horns when in an address to the National Assembly, he suspended Cabinet Secretaries Felix Kosgey (Agriculture), Davis Chirchir (Energy), Michael Kamau (Transport), Charity Ngilu (Water) and Kazungu Kambi (Labour).

NYS Scam

Months later, Devolution Secretary Annne Waiguru stepped aside after intense pressure over her role in the loss of money at the National Youth Service (NYS).

“Everybody who has ever been named, I have removed them, I have done my part at great costs, politically by asking these people to step aside. And they have done it,” said Mr Kenyatta at the time.

However, the malaise did not go away, becoming more intense in 2016 as more scandals hit the Jubilee administration.

In the course of the year, it also became clear that the NYS saga cost tax payers a lot more than the Sh791 million reported initially, with the amount lost in the heist rising to Sh1.8 billion.

Afya House Scandal

Things then came to a head late in the year when another mega scandal broke at the Ministry of Health, bearing similar hallmarks to the NYS saga.

The masterminds of the Sh5.5 billion heist at the ministry employed similar tricks to those used by their counterparts at NYS, only on a grander scale.

The NYS-style mega corruption scandal involving diversion of funds, double payment for goods, and manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) was a clear indication that corrupt cartels within Government were confident of getting away with it without suffering any repercussions.

Kilifi County

County governments were not spared either after the collusion to steal from public coffers was exposed at Kilifi County where eight county officials and five companies conspired to steal Sh51 million.

Makegra Supplies Limited, Zohali Services Limited, Kilifi Investments Services Limited, Leadership Edge Associates Limited and Daima One Enterprise were aided by insiders to get several payments made to their bank accounts.

The Sh51 million was wired in tranches of between Sh3 million and Sh8 million, which were all captured on IFMIS and backed up at Treasury in Nairobi.

Galana and Mwea Irrigation Scheme

Another corruption scandal that hit the executive this year centered around President Kenyatta’s bid to make Kenya food secure by irrigating one million acres.

The National Irrigation Board General Manager Daniel Barasa and two other senior managers - Mary Chomba and Boaz Akello were sent packing over financial impropriety in multi-billion-shilling projects within the agency.

Treasury has allocated NIB Sh8.6 billion for mega irrigation projects across the country for the financial year starting July 2016, including the Sh3.2 billion Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme, which seeks to put one million acres under irrigation.

A similar amount has been allocated to the Mwea Irrigation Scheme and a further Sh2.2 billion for other projects.

Following the scandal, the Government has cut the irrigation budget by Sh6.8 billion and postponed irrigation of one project and scaled down spending on another.

In revised targets for the 2016/17 fiscal year, the National Treasury slashed the supplementary estimates for the State Department of Irrigation from Sh19.04 billion to Sh12.24 billion due to what it said were financial constraints.

The Government had planned to irrigate phase II of Lower Nyanza Irrigation Project that would have covered 450 acres. This has been put off for now.

In addition, work on the Mwea Irrigation Project has been scaled down. Some 1,500 acres will be sacrificed as a result. In the current financial year, the new estimates show that just 1,000 acres will be put under irrigation.

NIB has also come into focus after Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) established that the board awarded 15 irregular tenders for the Nadapal, Loborot, Kolyoro, Turkwell and Naoros irrigation schemes worth Sh953 million.

NIB reportedly shortened procurement stages, revised contract costs, issued restricted tenders beyond the Sh20 million limit as well as the tender committee sanctioning contracts despite lack of quorum.

The projects have since collapsed with canals becoming blocked and embankments collapsing, reversing efforts to make Turkana food-secure.

Evans Kidero Foundation

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero was also in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2016.

A foundation associated with the governor is being investigated over the source of an alleged Sh2.7 billion in its bank accounts.

The board of a non-governmental organisation associated with Mr Kidero has been suspended and the NGO’s bank accounts frozen as the regulator launches investigations.