The SGR Scandal: How Conniving Chinese Nationals are ‘eating’ with a big spoon

On Friday, news broke on how Kenyans have lost millions of money in the SGR scandal.

On Friday, things took a dramatic turn when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives in Mombasa arrested three senior Chinese officials and their four Kenyan counterparts working for the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC)

According to insiders, one aspect of the scheme under investigation involves creating refunds for tickets already issued to passengers on board for each of the four trips and channeling the refunds elsewhere.

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Kenya Railways officials are said to have raised the red flag over an unusually high number of refunds, triggering an investigation that is likely to unearth millions of shillings in lost revenue since President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the service on June 1, 2017.

Intense monitoring revealed that the passengers who had allegedly been refunded were indeed inside the train ready to travel.

It is not clear how long the fraud had been run but well-placed sources within the ticketing docket said there are indications of up to Sh1 million per day on all trips having been stolen.

A popular travel agent with wide publicity on social and mainstream media is said to be the chief ticket pirate in the seat blocking game.

Police sources confirmed the sale of tickets outside the nine designated stations at inflated prices has been an ongoing scam and many suspects have been arrested in the past.

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The ticketing scam once again puts CRBC on the spot a few months after it was hit by claims of racial discrimination of Kenyan staff working for it.

The firm, which has been running the show on the multibillion-shilling SGR project from the feasibility study, civil works, supply of coaches and wagons, is expected to provide daily reconciliation of ticket purchase and revenue and it is not clear why the suspected fraud was not discovered earlier.S

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