A recent investigation by Kenyan authorities found that between 2017 and 2018, one large European bank based in London allowed nearly Ksh4 billion of dam money to be wired through its systems, back to Nairobi.
Many of the wire transfers ended up in peoples houses.
Detectives said the Sh6.3 billion was released in 2017 by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich for which was for mobilisation of resources to enable Italian firm, CMC di Ravenna, start the projects.
The Sh6.3 billion – 10 per cent of the total cost for the two dams – was wired by Treasury to Milan in Italy in 2017.
However, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says Sh4 billion was re-routed to a bank in London and soon after to another bank in Nairobi.
“We have the account number the money was sent to in London and Nairobi. We don’t know why the money was being sent to Nairobi and that is part of our investigations,” DCI Director George Kinoti said yesterday.
Once in Nairobi, the money was withdrawn in US dollars from a bank in Westlands, Mr Kinoti said.
“The Italian contractors say they don’t have money because it was taken away. They can’t explain, yet we are servicing a loan as a country. This is sad and merciless,” he said.
Kinoti claimed the Sh4 billion “is in people’s houses.”
Detectives want to find out the reason the money found its way back to Kenya in their ongoing investigations into the stalled Sh63 billion Kimwarer and Arror dam projects in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
The Sh6.3 billion was reportedly for mobilisation of resources to enable Italian firm, CMC di Ravenna, start the projects.