President Uhuru warns of major arrests at port

President Uhuru Kenyatta gets ready to flag off a vessel that shipped off Kenya’s first oil consignment out of Mombasa yesterday. [PSCU]

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) bosses implicated in graft will soon be arrested and charged, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in Mombasa yesterday.

The Head of state revealed that some suspects have been trying to reach out to him for help as the noose tightens on corrupt State officials. 

But he declared that he will not come to anyone’s aid, “because those lines are no longer in service”.

Yesterday, Uhuru appeared alarmed at the scale of the alleged crimes at the port of Mombasa.

He suggested that graft at the port was being committed on an industrial scale, mostly through the illegal diversion of goods and inflation of project costs to secure kickbacks.

“Those of you at the port, we are monitoring and watching you. We know how much money you wanted to spend and how much you have spent and how much you intended to spend,” said the president. 

He added: “We know what you are planning to slow down and deflect attention so that goods can enter. But this is a warning that there are some people who are now committed to unearth and root out these schemes.”

High-level corruption

“These people will soon come here. They neither joke nor laugh. Very soon you will be reading in newspapers that so and so has been taken down...We have been monitoring and watching what has been happening in the port. There is someone who does not fear arresting anyone and he will strike,” he said in reference to law enforcement agencies.

Earlier this month the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) deployed a team of 12 detectives from DCI headquarters to investigate high-level corruption including at the Kipevu Oil Terminal (KOT).

For two days last week, DCI boss George Kinoti and Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Githii Mburu camped at the port to coordinate the investigation sparking immense fear.

One of the most lingering graft probes at the port involves the alleged inflation of a new oil terminal at KOT. It was allegedly, inflated from Sh26 billion to Sh40 billion between the time it was conceived to the time it was signed in October last year.

Last week the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) returned investigations files with recommendations to tighten loose ends. Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has already recommended arrests and prosecutions.

Additionally, DCI is investigating an Sh560 million tender to construct 10,000 concrete barriers awarded by KPA to six firms amid claims the cost of the project could have been inflated by 500 per cent.

The president vowed that there will be no mercy or preferential treatment for those involved in graft at the port. He said although he does not control the DCI and DPP he believes the two agencies are committed to the war on corruption.

“Do not say I have sent anyone when you get caught. You have been caught with the hand in the jar and very soon you will begin to see that so and so is missing, he has been arrested. There is danger coming and so open your eyes and there will be no one to talk to or call because those lines are no longer in service.”

He was speaking during the flag off the first ship carrying crude oil China.

The president said activities of senior managers have been monitored closely and criminal evidence unearthed and now arrests and prosecutions will follow.