The former attorney general Githu Muigai had advised CS Rotich to be careful with the mega dam contract before giving it a go ahead as he had noticed some fishy things inside, but Rotich out of what he will explain to DCI ignored only to respond 16 months later after the contract had been signed.
The due diligence Githu Muigai had noticed was in relation to the financial, technical and legal competence of CMC di Ravenna to carry out the contract to completion as it had emerged that the financier of the project could be allowed to seize Kenya’s assets abroad if Nairobi defaulted in paying the loan after the project had completed.
On March 10, 2017, a month before KVDA Managing Director David Kimosop signed the contract, the then Attorney-General Githu Muigai wrote to Treasury CS Henry Rotich seeking his intervention.
The AG had detected some misdeeds in the document that he wanted Rotich to check before the contract could be executed.
“We advise that a due carefulness be undertaken on … CMC di Ravena before executing the contract involving key collaborators, which must include representative from the office of the Attorney-General and the Department of Justice to establish its capacity and capability to carry out the project,” Prof Muigai said.
MISDEEDS
“This article is unlawful and should be deleted as it gives the lender the right to file a number of proceedings contemporaneously in several jurisdictions relating to the same matter,” Prof Muigai added.
It has emerged that the due diligence was undertaken between April 25 and May 3, 2017, three weeks after the contract had already been signed.
The due diligence was in relation to the financial, technical and legal competence of CMC di Ravenna to carry out the contract to completion.
In order to cover up their misdeeds, KVDA officials wrote to Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki on September 17, 2018 seeking his “concurrence” with the due-diligence report.
It is not clear why Mr Kimosop sought the AG’s nod after 16 months.
In his letter to Mr Kihara, Mr Kimosop explained that KVDA had not done due diligence because “the financiers had set out stringent timelines and there was need to secure funding after consultations with the relevant government authorities”.
He also said due diligence had been undertaken on CMC di Ravenna after it was given the Itare Dam contract in Molo.
Although CMC di Ravenna later filed for bankruptcy, the KVDA report said “the company is financially, technically and legally sound and is therefore cleared to implement the projects”.
Detectives are now looking for the KVDA officials who wrote the report and the representative from the AG’s office who accompanied KVDA officers to South Africa, where the due diligence on the company was ostensibly undertaken.
“It is our professional opinion that CMC di Ravena has a good standing … to implement Arror and Kimwarer multi-purpose dam projects,” the officials said in their report.
The AG asked every member of the due diligence committee to put their initials on every page of the report.