Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero is yet to comment on the graft allegations raised by Senator Mike Sonko. Photo/FILE

Kidero on the spot over graft allegations

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero was on the spot facing varied pressure yesterday, a day after the City Senator Mike Sonko tabled a sheaf of assorted documents as proof of corruption and mismanagement by the county boss.
Apart from the blunt allegations by Sonko, who stormed the Nairobi County Assembly to table his documented allegations, Kidero was also facing other serious claims contained in an audit report, detailing a scam of fake export of sugar worth Sh2.7 billion by the Mumias Sugar Company when he was the managing director.
The Mumias dossier is said to have been leaked by some of the former Mumias company’s executives, who have been taken to court over alleged misdeeds involving the said fake sugar exports.
The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture is expected to summon Kidero to appear before it today, or later, to answer to allegations made in the report as well as those made by Sonko on the sugar company.
Audit firm KPMG and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have indicated that fake sugar exports allegedly valued at Sh2.7 billion were recorded as exported to regional countries by Mumias in the period when Kidero at the companiy’s helm.
The reports state that the sugar listed for export did not leave the country, costing the tax agency in excess of Sh250 million in unpaid taxes. Sugar for export is not taxed. Agriculture committee chairman Noor Mohamed has been quoted saying Kidero would be summoned to answer to the allegations.
But the governor’s media team had yesterday indicated he would answer to the damning allegations made by Sonko, but Kidero, who earlier joined President Uhuru Kenyatta for a function in Nairobi, did not respond.
Kidero’s protocol officer John Osogo, however, said the governor would not respond to the allegations and called on the Nairobi Senator to file his complaints appropriately and table tangible evidence “instead of tarnishing the governor’s name”.
Osogo said the allegations by Sonko contain defamatory statements that would be out of place for the Kidero to respond to without legal counsel. In his speech at the presidential function, Kidero—without mentioning Sonko—said: “There are some people who have PhDs in noise-making.”
However, other sources close to Kidero indicated he would address a press conference today to clarify the matter. During the opening of the County Assembly on Tuesday, Sonko appeared to take advantage of the privileged floor of the House to table all the allegations he had been making against the governor elsewhere.
For more than two hours, the senator had uninterrupted leeway to poke holes at Kidero’s leadership after Speaker Alex ole Magelo granted him the ceremonial opportunity to give the opening address as the Assembly resumed from recess. Ironically, the Governor may as well have been the one to open the Assembly, but he did not turn up leaving Sonko to have a field day to tear him down from his own turf.
“I wish to table some audio clips and unfortunately it will not go down well with some people who will lose some confidence in me but for the sake of development of Nairobi County, allow me to table them,” he said.
Sonko, with a big bundle of files containing documents of alleged corrupt dealings involving Kidero’s government top officials, alleged that over Sh200 million had, so far, misappropriated since the county government’s inception.
He claimed the governor was giving out tenders to his cronies, some of whom he alleged had worked with him at the Mumias company. Among those Sonko linked to alleged garbage collection tender scam is the owner of a waste collection company, who he claimed had also worked with him at Mumias company.
He said the company is currently collecting garbage in the CBD after smaller companies that had won tenders earlier were allegedly kicked out. Sonko said he had names of all individuals and companies used to loot the county coffers through garbage collection tenders.
The senator said a report by Auditor General on Nairobi City County revealed that Sh166 million was paid to various firms which were not even in the pre-qualified list of garbage tenders. He said huge amounts were paid in contracts, while county garbage trucks acquired through asset financing by the Cooperative Bank of Kenya were grounded at the County Garage Depot requiring only minor repairs.
Out of 19 firms paid, five received 85 percent of all the payments ranging from Sh15 to Sh195 million, he claimed. Sonko also tabled a document which he claimed showed there was a conflict of interest in a tender which had been awarded to George Wainaina, the County Chief of Staff.