Kibaki never responded to my dossier on graft, Githongo claims

John Githongo, a former permanent secretary  during Mwai Kibaki's administration. (Photo: Jenipher Wachie/Standard)

Former president Mwai Kibaki did not respond to a dossier exposing massive corruption in his administration, a former permanent secretary has said.

Former Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo, during cross-examination by former Cabinet Secretary Chris Murungaru's lawyer Kioko Kilukumi, said he only received calls from other Cabinet ministers and his colleagues over the dossier.

"After two days I received calls from the Cabinet secretaries and that is when I got to know that the President received it," he said.

Asked whether he shared the dossier with the media, Mr Githongo said journalists came to him with copies and asked him whether he was the author. The copies were genuine.

He told the court that he met with former Energy minister Simeon Nyachae and they discussed the high level of corruption in the Internal Security ministry.

"Nyachae informed me that Murungaru was involved in Sh5 billion Anglo-leasing scandal because his ministry was involved with corruption," Githongo said.

He told the court that all the information linking Murungaru to the scandal came from other people and not from him.

He argued that he was not ready to call any of his primary sources to appear in court to give their testimonies because some came to him as friends.

Tape recordings

Githongo claimed to have tape recordings of their conversations with his sources of information who are Simeon Nyachae and Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi.

"There is no way a transaction could have taken place without involvement of Murungaru who was the minister at that time," Githongo said, adding that the former minister was Kibaki's friend at that time. Githongo said he had with him reports from various departments including Kenya National Audit Office, Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority and from Director of Criminal investigations.

"I gave the President the tape recordings of the corrupt transactions of Aglo-leasing," said Githongo. "Some of the records did not have the name of Murungaru but since his ministry was involved in corruption, he was linked with the scandal."