MILLIONS OF SHILLINGS MAY HAVE BEEN LOST IN FRESH MEGA FINANCIAL SCANDALS INVOLVING FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES MINISTRIES.
Investigative reports By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
Kenya is known as a land of a million rumors and mega financial scandals of all sorts, but in most cases such rumors materialize to be full of truth.
Of late, Kenyan Newspapers, particularly the popular WEEKLY CITIZEN newspaper, known for its accuracy in investigative reports, has come out with startling reports incriminating two government ministries of Foreign affairs and Special Programmes.
It says that the Minister Raila Odinga is concerned over the purchase of Kshs 1.5 billion property in Tokyo, Japan, that was later razed down by fire in unclear circumstances.
The Kenya government property had initially been valued at Kshs 700 million, but extra Kshs 800 million was paid for the same property for unknown purpose.
The Japanese government, according to the report, had valued the property at Kshs 700 million, giving room for speculations and rumors that the government of Kenya may have been conned in the saga.
It is being alleged in the report that foreign Affairs Ministry top officials might have transpired to set the property ablaze and burnt it down to conceal the truth.
Kenya’s Acting ambassador to Japan is a Mr. Mburu, and the information that the CITIZEN claims to have is that a land valuer from the Ministry of Lands in Nairobi had travelled to Japan, and without consulting his colleagues in Kenyan Mission in Tokyo, arbitrarily valued the property for Kshs 1.5 billion.
It says the land officer had travelled on a diplomatic passport, and was in constant contact with some senior officials at the ministry’s headquarters back home in Nairobi during the valuation exercise in Tokyo.
Fear is said to have gripped the Ministry, and sources have revealed that a team of experts have been dispatched to Japan to investigate the saga.
Surprisingly it is said the officers involved in the Tokyo scam, majority of them are from the Party of National Unity {PNU} wing of the grand coalition, and have already been earmarked for new postings abroad as ambassadors.
The paper says it has impeccable information that the postings are soon going to be made. Of the 23 officers, 16 of them are political appointments..
The Minister for Foreign Affairs is Hon Moses Wetangula, while the Permanent Secretary is Mr Thuita Mwangi.
Another major scam involving a government ministry is the claims that close to Kshs 150 million from the Ministry of Special Programme, which is headed by the Minister Dr. Naomi Shaban, might have been lost. The money, which is suspected to have been misappropriated, was meant for settling the post-election violence victims, and the disruptions of Sabaot Land Defense Force in Mt Elgon and parts of the upper Western Province.
Mr Job Bwonya, the CEO of Western Kenyan Human Right Watch in a statement quoted extensively by CITIZEN has expressed serious concern at the alleged loss, and appealed to the Minister for Special Programmes, Dr. Naomi Shaban, to launch investigations into the scandal, which he said has affected 6008 victims who were to benefit from the money.
Districts affected are Mt.Elgon, Bungoma West, Kimilili, Bungoma North, Busia and Bungoma South.
According to the rights group, the affected persons were from Cheptais Division 1040. Kapsiro 1320, Kapsokwony 396, Kiptama 170, Sirisia 210, Chwele 516, Bungoma South 446, Kimilili 1470, and Busia all totaling 6008 victims.
Bwonya said his organization has established credible claims from those affected that some politicians from the region may have collaborated with the Provincial Administration in the in embezzling the money, which had been directly channeled through the D.C’s accounts.
It has further been established that in most cases, the district Treasury officials were not involved in the transaction scandal, which some D.Cs are now blaming on computer errors, particularly in the case of missing names.
Investigations have further revealed that those in the district are shifting the blame to the Ministry’s Nairobi offices for the “mistakes of the missing names or deleted names”, although it is emerging that those claims are being made privately to individual victims complaining of non-payment, but officials are not willing to comment on the matter publicly.
Similar claims and allegation of large scale inflation of figures of the IDP people in Kipkellion were made, but the government did not bother to investigate. The government is said to have spent millions in buying blankets, maize flour meals, beans, rice, and other detergent for the phantom IDP.
It was later alleged that the local administrator, working in cohort with politicians, might have pocketed the relief food and helped themselves in selling the maize at the current prices.The genuine number of IDPs in Kipkellion did not exceed 3,600, but the government spent millions of shillings catering for phantom numbers, which were inflated.
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