A government car that was assigned to former Agriculture PS Richard Lesiyampe worth Sh 5.4 million and disappeared after an alleged car-jacking is yet to be recovered five years later, a house committee has been told. National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told that the vehicle-a Toyota Prado was taking his son to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to visit his grandfather.
The committee also learnt that Sh 210million that was spent during Lesiyampe’s tenure who is currently under investigations over corruption allegations at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) could also not be accounted for.
According to a statement by Lesiyampe’s driver a Bonfice Mwangi, he was attacked on his way home to drop Pallet along Ngong road after a probox vehicle obstructed him along statehouse road and two armed men with pistols alighted from the vehicle and pushed him out of his vehicle and fled with it. “At around 10.15pm, Edwin came back and we started driving back home.
We took Ngong road turned right to Mbagathi road then to valley road. We turned left to Ralph Buhere road and at the junction with State House Avenue I noticed a vehicle driving along state house road, I stopped to a fast-driven vehicle, Toyota probox passed our vehicle and obstructed our way whereby I hit on the left rear,” reads part of Mwangi’s statement.
While appearing before the Opiyo Wandayi led committee, Environment Ps Ali Noor Ismael said that the ministry was in the process of recovering the vehicle which at the time of the carjacking was not on official duty. The new revelations came after the Auditor General Edward Ouko in the 2014/2015 financial year said that the vehicle was being driven by unauthorized persons and no loss of vehicle was reported at any police station.
“The matter was reported by the driver Mr Boniface Mwaura as a carjacking incident at the Kileleshwa police station. He also reported the matter to the PS through the transport office. The matter is still under investigations by the Kenya Police Service,” reads part of Ouko’s report. Committee members led by Wandayi, Otiende Amollo (Rarieda) and Ndindi Nyoro (Kiharu) demanded that Ismael provides a detailed report on the efforts being made to recover the vehicle. Nyoro sought to know why the matter was reported five days after the car- jacking incident took place while Amollo insisted that the driver should be made to explain what exactly happened.
Ismael was also questioned on other transactions including authorizing of non-existent seedlings totaling to Sh 34.9million and a further Sh 169.5million for the installation and commissioning of integrated meteorological data collection system. On the acquisition of the seedlings, the Ministry was at pains to explain how the procurement was done, who the suppliers were as the tender lacked the delivery notes for the goods and services received. The lawmakers’ present poked holes on how the whole exercise was done despite Ismael saying that the delivery of seedlings in the various destinations was verified, the delivery notes signed, stamped and goods received.