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| Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru. 2019 FILE |
Shock! Regina Mwaura one of the businesswomen in Kirinyaga county was occupied in her workshop in Kerugoya town on August 30th when she got a telephone call from a number a strange number asking her to show herself at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) regional offices in Nyeri.
She was notified that her company, Lewis Supplies was the subject of investigations into Sh77 million paid to the firm in a water project tender.
Detectives told her they had uncovered extensive corruption in project tenders by the Kirinyaga County government, one of which was awarded to her company.
She was left in a mouth-wide open and in shock as her company was struggling with finances.
EACC was examining conditions under which her company, Lewis Supplies, was paid Sh77 million for the Mwea/Makima water project.
Regina Mwaura was confused. Though her company had applied for the tender in 2017 for that project, the company owner was not aware of any award of tender or payment.
According to Regina, her company never received a cent nor won the tender, with the money having been redirected to another bank account.
EACC officials raided Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru’s office and her homes and after forensic investigation, they found Lewis Supplies recorded as having won the water tender and launched more investigations.
“On September 3, I was summoned by EACC investigators to their Nyeri regional office where I was interrogated and asked how my company won the tender,” she said.
“I was shocked to see documents indicating my company had won a Sh 77 million tender CGK/OT/038/2017/2018 Mwea/Makima project and paid the money in full. This was unusual since my company wasn’t pre-qualified in the tendering process,” she said.
The company papers she had submitted for pre-qualification were the same in the file but the bank account was altered.
She notified EACC detectives that as far she was troubled she never won the tender and her documents were fraudulently acquired and used to siphon money from the county government.
“This is pure theft of public money. My company has not done any water project and I have informed the investigators all what I know and pleaded with them to ensure those who used my company to steal from the public are punished,” she said.
However, according to People Daily sources revealed that they alarmed that the company was given a tender for a project already completed in 2017 during the tenure of Governor Joseph Ndathi.
The project, which is expected to supply water to more than 30,000 residents of Mwea constituency, had first been awarded to Tonilo Builders Limited at a cost of Sh77 million.
Anthony Karanja, a director of Tonilo, his company had already done 95 per cent of the work and what was outlasting was the installation of electricity at the water treatment site.
He exposed that he was paid Sh40 million by Governor Ndathi’s government for the work and was awaiting the balance which is yet to be paid.
“We had done about 95 per cent of the work. We had finished piping, intake construction and the remaining work was to install electricity which we had applied for at Kenya Power,” he said.
He said that when the Waiguru administration came into office he was shocked to discover that his company had been shoved out of the project and the work committed to a different contractor.
“Our attempts to be paid the remaining Sh37 million has been thwarted by the county government. We are informed that we are not even among companies expecting payments. The project is listed under stalled yet it is ongoing,” he added.
Regional EACC coordinator Charles Rasugu said investigators had commenced probes into the questionable tender.
“We are enclosed to the matter and investigations are ongoing,” said Rasugu but declined to comment further.
Area MCA Gurdison Muchina termed Regina’s revelation as “very strange” and urged the anti-graft agency to ensure those involved were brought to book.
“The project was almost concluded and now I hear it was paid an additional Sh77 million. It is very shocking. Those who have fraudulently used the company to steal from the public must be executed,” he said.
Muchina said they launched the project on March 28, 2019, together with Governor Waiguru but he was uninformed of corruption accusations in the matter.
“These are some of the issues which were hidden from us during the impeachment motion. The country can now see how this county government is corrupt and the governor should be shown the door,” he said.
Waiguru in June survived an impeachment motion after Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala led team cleaned her in the Senate.
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