Francis Muli
A month after Kahawa Tungu ran an expose on how John Ngumi and his cronies embezzled funds in the Kisumu Oil Jet Construction, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has taken up the matter and is investigating seven top officials of the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC).
The officials led by the Chairman John Ngumi implicated in a Ksh1.8 billion scandal in the construction of the oil jetty, a project that may never work. Partner states in the project have refused to undertake the project in their end, which would have made it viable.
Among those summoned include the Chair of the Board of Directors Mr John Ngumi, the chair of the Technical committee Major Neepe Itayason, former chair of the finance committee Faith Boinett and former chair of the audit committee Jerry Simu. The four will appear before the DCI on October 22, at 10am.
The Managing Director Mr Joe Sang has also been summoned in connection and will appear before the DCI on October 19.
The Manager in the department of finance and his counterpart in the department of infrastructure have been called to answer questions concerning the scandal on October 18.
According to the story run by this blog a while ago, Kenya Pipeline bought all materials meant to be used to construct the jetty in 2001, just two years before the departure of President Daniel Arap Moi. 50% of the materials were stored at the KPC yard in Industrial Area, Nairobi, while the remaining were kept at the facility in Kisumu.
Being gluttonous in nature, John Ngumi in 2016 started demanding “kitu cha kuuma” (something to chew) from key engineers in the state company, saying that he must also find something he can benefit from.
Read: The Ksh 1.8 Billion Kisumu Oil Jetty Scam Pulled by John Ngumi at KPC
This is what led to the disposition of the construction materials as scrap metal to South Engineering Company (SECO), the company that would later win the tender to undertake the project.
Kahawa Tungu learnt that SECO used the same materials disposed to them as scrap metal to do the project. It would later emerge that the materials were disposed while still in good condition, as a way of creating room for Ngumi and his cronies to eat.
Ngumi cunningly inflated the project to Ksh1.8 billion, more than triple of the estimated cost.
Analysts believe that with the materials which were available, KPC would not have spent more than Ksh 250 million if it constructed the jetty using own engineers. KPC would have spent a maximum of Ksh 600 million to see the completion of the jetty if it were to buy the materials afresh.
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