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Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) are investigating top officers of the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) in a Ksh14.2 billion land compensation scandal.
According to reports, the officers, during the construction of Nairobi-Mombasa high voltage power line, mirrored what happened during the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) construction by inflating land prices for compensation.
In some cases such as Kajiado, some land compensations where the lines passed are inflated up to ten times the normal prices.
The owner of an 8.4 acre piece of land in the area was paid Ksh35.6 million despite the land being valued at Ksh4.5 million.
Ketraco managing director Mr Joel Kiilu had initially valued the piece of land at Ksh1.8 million.
However, Ketraco allowed the owner to do his own valuation with three officers from the state body chipping in to influence the inflated compensation for kickbacks.
Among those implicated include Ketraco’s then land economist, Ms Salome Munubi.
Another unnamed company was paid Ksh72 million with no paperwork or valuation of its land in Kajiado. The land in question was 5.1 acres.
According to an internal audit, the Tsavo-Embakasi phase was delayed by four years and six months.
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“These delays had a huge cost impact to Ketraco as the contractors claimed their overheads, idling equipment and manpower, stoppages, acceleration, mobilisation and demobilisation,” reads the report in part.
Also, a transmission line with an installed capacity of 950MW was only evacuating 20MW, a two-per-cent capacity.
The company had a target of creating a network of 4000 kilometre high voltage power lines in the country, but the dream could remain only on paper due to the cartel operation of Ketraco officials.
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