Deputy President William Ruto is a man under siege after his Chief of Staff Mr Ken Osinde, was linked to a 36 Billion Scandal which has caught the interest of the DCI boss Kinoti.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations Tuesday started to examine how the billions of shillings paid to an Italian firm by the National Treasury for the construction of the Arror and Kamwerer dams was shared.
Mr Osinde, a former envoy to Germany, Romania and Bulgaria, is listed as a director of Sanlam General Insurance Ltd, together with Telkom Kenya chief executive officer and former director-general of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board Mugo Kibati, and the estate of the late Cabinet minister John Michuki. Also listed is the estate of the late billionaire Godfrey Karuri.
Sh20 million towels
On Tuesday, the DCI revealed that some of the directors told investigators that they had been asked to deliver material — unrelated to the construction of a dam — to a yard in Eldoret and in Nairobi.
“One of the companies told us they delivered towels worth Sh20 million, while another delivered tiles and carpets. We are asking them how this is related to the construction of a dam and they are not able to answer,” said Mr Kinoti.
Too close to call
Others were tour and travel companies, including Charleston Travel and Express Tours and Travel.
“What we do not understand yet is how people supplied materials for a project that had not even started. We also do not understand how money was disbursed yet there was no proper documentation,” said Mr John Kariuki, director of the Investigations Bureau.
While the DCI says various company directors recorded statements at different times yesterday, Mr Kariuki added that it was “too early to say who among them had a case to answer”.
“For now, we are just analysing the documents they came with and taking statements from them. We cannot say at this point that someone is guilty of an offence or not,” he said.