Machakos senator Boniface Kabaka has vowed to expose dirty dealings at Machakos county government even as the county governor failed to honour senate summons. Governor Alfred Mutua was scheduled to appear before the senate public accounts committee chaired by Homa Bay senator Moses Kajwang last week in Kitui.
The committee which was in Kitui on Senate Mashinani also grilled Kitui governor Charity Ngilu after the area senator Enoch Wambua raised audit queries over key county projects initiated by the governor. On his side Mutua snubbed the summons saying that senators Wambua and Kabaka had a personal vendetta against him for declaring that he was going to contest for the presidency come 2022.
However a close source in Mutua circles confided to Weekly Citizen that the governor spent better part of Monday last week chairing an urgent cabinet meeting. His county executives and top aides were summoned for the meeting via sms by the governor who had panicked that Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was narrowly closing on his case and that the senate queries was to be used to nail him and his top aides.
Ngilu
According to sources close to the investigations EACC has kept secret for a while, the county government singlesourced services for much of its works and services without following the laid down procedures towards the tail end Mutua’s first term.
The award contracts was hurriedly done by chief officers and crooked county executives to raise money for his reelection campaigns. The works would later be awarded to contractors and businessmen close to governor’s chief of staff Mwengi Mutuse who was then mobilising resources on behalf of the governor.
Companies which won the tenders were quickly paid even before finalising works were they would later deliver heavy kickbacks to the chief of staff.
The matter was raised with EACC soon after Mutua was reelected but those close to the happenings at his office say the first group of investigators were diverted on their way to Makueni county and heavily bribed to go slow on their probe.
The silencing of the sleuths took place at a hotel in Makindu town associated with the chief of staff. The matter is now at the hands of both DCI and now EACC which has assured to carry on a thorough probe on all companies doing works in Machakos county since 2013. The probe will also include county executives who are now swimming in millions after awarding works to ghost companies and later facilitating payments.
Kabaka
Companies under probe by EACC include Dannex Construction Company which is doing dam construction in Mwala at a cost of Sh85 million. Another company on the EACC radar is Greenlife Company owned by a close Mwengi associate. The company has won all contracts to supply seeds and fertilisers to farmers on behalf of the county government. The same company is also doing construction works according to sources.
The ongoing probe has split the county cabinet with those isolated during transactions welcoming EACC with word that Machakos county resources are enriching few mercenaries around Governor Mutua at the expense of residents. According to a senior accountant who sought anonymity for fear cited that the county is run by Mutua’s chief of staff and bypasses the laid down procedures in pushing for his intrests.
Mwengi is said to invoke the name of the governor while intimidating staff include chief officers who fear him more than the governor himself. The chief of staff has set his eyes on the Kibwezi West parliamentary seat and is said to be busy mobilising resources for the contest. The war pitting the governor and the senator is taking ugly scene considering that both are former allies. In 2013 when Kabaka lost the senatorial contest to former Senator Muthama,Mutua appointed him as his county attorney before resigning after three years.Kabaka went to court and was awarded 355 million for legal fees but Mutua has vowed not to pay.The matter is likely to shift Machakos politics now that both are are on each others neck.
