Two Cabinet secretaries and Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) boss await their fate this week as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji is expected to give direction on the Sh21 billion
Should the DPP concur with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) recommendations, then Treasury CS Henry Rotich, his Agriculture counterpart Mwangi Kiunjuri, KVDA boss David Kimosop and the authority’s procurement manager Paul Kiprotich are likely to be charged with various counts of abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud and economic crimes.
Reports indicate that East Africa Community CS Peter Munya is likely to be listed as a prosecution witness. The suspects have recorded statements at the DCI even as the DCI boss George Kinoti met Haji, after which further statements were recorded to clarify some grey areas.
Investigations aimed at tracing all proceeds of crime are ongoing and on Thursday, detectives asked all police formations across the country to trace and detain nine high-end vehicles that were bought by the Italian contractor, CMC di Ravenna, at the centre of the Sh21 billion dams scandal.
The lead investigator Inspector Gilbert Kitalia said CMC di Ravenna acquired 45 vehicles from Toyota Kenya at Sh160 million, but only 17 were registered in its name. Already, detectives have seized 37 of the vehicles.
This comes as CMC di Ravenna’s project manager Mauro Abbafati claimed the firm was unable to access the land where the two projects are supposed to be constructed, owing to human settlement.
Addressing the press in Eldoret, Abbafati said their work has been limited on the ground because of resistance by the affected families to vacate their land to pave way for the projects.
He said it was the duty of KVDA to ensure the families are relocated to alternative land to pave way for the projects. “We cannot access the land where the two dam projects are supposed to be built along Kerio Valley because the implementing agency is yet to relocate the affected families,” he said.
He added that they had been limited to drilling holes and extracting soil samples between 50 and 70 metres deep to establish the characters of the soil and rock underneath the ground. “This exercise is going to take us one year to be completed,” said Abbafati, who was accompanied by other company officials.
Detectives are investigating possible loss of more than Sh21 billion, which was an advance payment to the Italian company, amid claims by local leaders that the probe is politically instigated.