Criminal Investigation Department officers raid coffee body over fraud claims

By MARTIN MUTUA

Police on Thursday raided the offices of an association that has been running a coffee auction over fraud claims. This adds a new twist to the Sh51 billion coffee scandal.

Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters seized the premises of the Kenya Coffee Producers and Traders Association (KCPTA) in an early morning raid.

According to the search warrant seen by The Standard, the officers are investigating KCPTA over alleged misappropriation of funds, fraud and forgery of documents.

Money to finance the KPCTA management is provided by farmers after selling their coffee at the auction held every Tuesday.

The raid suspiciously occurred on the same day the coffee regulator – Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) took over the running of the auction.

CBK Managing Director, Loise Njeru, led a six-member transitional committee appointed by the Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Cabinet Secretary Felix Kosgey recently to take over the Nairobi Coffee Exchange that runs the coffee auction in Wakulima Building. Drama unfolded at the KCPTA offices as the new committee took over the offices while at the same time CID officers arrived to start searching the premises over fraud and embezzlement of funds.

As Njeru and her team were conducting their first meeting, CID officers were engaging Sylvester K’okoth the head of communications, who was the only senior officer in the office by then. 

It took more than an hour before the officers could start searching the offices.  

Searched offices

The officers searched K’okoth’s office as KPCTA Chief Executive Officer Charles Mbaluka and Chairman Humphrey Karia declined to physically come to the office even after the officers pleaded with them.

The CID officers led by Gideon Wamocha later left and issued summons for Mbaluka and his chairman Karia to report to CID Headquarters for questioning. 

The coffee auction has been under the management of the KCPTA a voluntary body whose core business has been to run the commercial Coffee Trade Sample Room and conduct auctioning of Kenyan coffee at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.

Njeru said taking over of the office is in line with new coffee trading rules gazetted last year by the then agriculture minister.

“The Agriculture minister published new rules last year and one of the key components of the rules is for the board to facilitate formation of a farmer-oriented board to run the coffee auction. The proposal to form the new committee was informed by the need to protect farmers’ hard earned sweat,” she told the media.

She added, “This committee has taken over the running of the auction for a maximum of 90 days as we put in place a permanent organ through an election in consultation with stakeholders.”

This adds a new dimension to the on-going saga at the coffee auction, coming at a time when it has emerged that farmers have lost over Sh51 billion in a major rip-off spanning the last nine years. 

The raid comes one week after business tycoon Pius Ngugi resigned as chairman of the association.