Companies allied to high ranking State Officials and friends of Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja are yet again lined up for dubious payments at City Hall.
In collaboration with the Controller of Budget ( COB) who has been clearing dubious payments despite glaring evidence of illegalities,the governor has ordered for the payments to be done before the end of the Financial Year 2023/2024,a time when Treasury is expected to release the last batch of monies to counties.
Confident of the windfall,some of the directors of the companies joined hands with the governor to buy over 500 goats to Muslim groups celebrating the Eid al-Adha.
The companies dealing with general supplies and garbage will receive million for work that was never procured and some of the payments have been ordered by close allies of President William Ruto.
The companies are Zonari Investment which is set to receive Sh 21,823,600 under Invoice number 577 and LPO Nnumber : 516. Centreline Logistics which has been recieving millions for work not done will also bag Ksh 88,579,806 under Invoice No: CL/5/2023 LPO No: 517
Another company Philippe Gourdin that has been fleecing counties and state departments will receive Ksh 23,113,975 under Invoice No: 404 and LPO No: 518
Oxifresh Services that has always been on the radar of DCI and EACC detectives has been allocated Ksh 11,125,061 under invoice No: 002 and LPO No: 519
The total amount comes to Ksh 144,642,442 that will be paid to the ‘garbage collecting companies.The County’s finance department also lined up close to another Ksh 250 million that will be paid to suspect companies.
The county has developed the habit of making millions and sometimes billions of fake payments during this period when the FY is coming to an end.This is a calculated move to clear the county coffers in the name of development budget pending bills before the beginning of another FY.
Last year around the same time,the county made payments totalling to Ksh500million,all to companies that didn’t do any supplies.
Reports detailing a list of 27 companies and firms that are beneficiaries of suspect and dubious payments at City Hall can be emerged early this month.
According to the reports,the companies were paid millions of shillings between June and July 2023.
Most of the companies have direct links to Sakaja, his staff and senior state officials.
As per the documents available to this writer,the first set of companies cumulatively got paid Sh 290,331,364 million on 13/07/2023 at the time the county had received over 70 billion from treasury just before the end of the 2022/2023 Financial Year.
This was a record breaking money heist with an insider source revealing that the county may have lost close to Sh500 million in the same period as the finance department rushed to spend the money through irregular payments before the official start of the 2023/2024 FY.
A second set of companies whose directors and managers are well known to the governor was also paid Sh 60,942,854 million.
Some of the companies in the first set include Lakev Enterprises Ltd. Which is linked to one Kevin Musamia but run by Felista Queen Akosa as a proxy.
The company was paid on July 13 2023 a whopping amount of Sh 15,478,448.30 and another voucher amounting to Sh 8,967, 692.40.
Musamia is currently working at the county as a clerical officer and is a close friend to the governor.
Another county official Mohamed Bashit who is the Deputy Director for trade benefited from payments made to IStanbul Investment Company which was paid Sh 15,227,107.75 on July 13,2023. He also has several companies that were paid huge amount of money through hot-air supplies.
Bashit was investigated for faking documents before cooperating Chief Officer Finance Asha Abdi of passport number CK20706 to effect the payments.
Another company Northern Rock Investment was also paid 19,652,172.40 for work that cannot be authenticated and City Hall was once flagged by the Auditor General over the same.
The company which deals with construction work is linked to senior government officers.
Brighton Pharmaceutical also benefited from fictitious payments totaling to Sh18,500,000.00 and it’s not clear what the payments were for considering the county procures medicine directly from KEMSA.
COUNTY STAFF INVESTIGATED
Senior officers who have been investigated over dubious payments include Asha Abdi, Martha Wambugu, Kevin Musamia, Mohamed Bashit, Nairobi City County Assembly Speaker Ken Ng’ondi, accounts Vincent Muhanji, Stephen Mafura, Denis Muia who is a close ally to Asha Abdi and does Workplans.
In November 2023, EACC summoned 11 officers for grilling at its headquarters.
This was in relation to theft of amounts totaling Sh.60 million.
The commission has also been following up on suspected dubious payments of Sh100 million paid to proxy companies associated by senior county officials.
The officers who were summoned are Francis Irungu (Supply Chain Management), Rachel Mutambaki (security), Nelly Odanda (Human Resource Department), Alex Kayera (Administration HR), Augustine Wafula (Devolution), Alukwe (Administration, Aggrey Sagwa (Supply Chain), Leonard Biwot (Supply Chain)Joshua Kimeu (supply chain).
Others are Caleb Obumba (supply chain and Bernard Owiti (Human Resource).
This comes a day after the Nairobi City County Assembly was petitioned to investigate circumstances under which the county issued a fake Local Purchase Order for the supply of 60 phones.
The company, Equipeit Enterprises was contracted by the county’s Innovation and Digital Economy department to supply 60 Samsung Galaxy s23 ultra mobile phones at an exaggerated amount of 375,000 each.
The company blamed County Executive Committee Member in charge of Innovation and Digital Economy Mike Mayo Guyo for issuing them with LPO 0015995 which turned out to be a forgery and unauthorized.
This is despite the company having delivered the said phones and now at the risk of losing Sh20,000.
“That whereas,we were issued with a Local Purchase Order (LPO) Number 0015995 by one Mike Gumo, the Nairobi City County Executive Committee Member in charge of Innovation and Digital Economy for the supply of sixty (60) Samsung Galaxy s23 ultra mobile phones at a price of Ksh 375,000 each,” the petition reads in part.
LIST OF COMPANIES THAT BENEFITED FROM THE FAKE PAYMENTS:
Company Date paid Amount
Lakev Enterpises 13/07/2023 15,478,448.30
Lakev Enterprises 13/07/2023 8,967,692.40
Yehg Logistics 13/07/2023 17,542,241.40
Brighton Pharmaceutical 13/07/2023 18,500,000.00
Istanbul Investment Ltd 13/07/2023 15,227,107.75
Remont Services Ltd 13/07/2023 13,226,000.00
Wesca Enterprises 13/07/2023 13,139,482.75
Zaas Enterprises 13/07/2023 13,184,335.85
Jowa Agencies Ltd 13/07/2023 14,078,017.25
Rar Awamimtech Ltd 13/07/2023 18,868,965.50
Duli Enterprises Ltd 13/07/2023 19,652,666.40
Northern Rock Investment 13/07/2023 19,652,172.40
Zafi Traders K Ltd 13/07/2023 19,654,091.40
Niftique General Suppliers Ltd 13/07/2023 19,652,715.50
Westrift Holdings Ltd 13/07/2023 17,345,984.50
Rafseq Traders Ltd 13/07/2023 17,075,431.05
Absit Enterprises 29-30/06/2023
Total 290,331,364
SET 2
TREBER SOLUTIONS LTD – 7,250,000
JIGSAW CONSTRUCTION LTD – 7,386,975
SUPREME ICT SOLUTION LTD – 5,030,000
PRICELESS CLEANING SERVICES LTD- 8,480,504
NANE HOMES COMPANY LTD- 5,308,615
INVENTORY INVESTMENT LTD – 6,155,000
FREBERY CONSULTANTS 6,020,102
LENNOTA MERCHANT – 8,889,000
MALBE CONSTRUCTION LTD- 6,422,658
ACCOUNTS FROZEN
The county is currently under great threat since its accounts were frozen by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). The controller of budget Margaret Nyakang’o had also slashed Nairobi city county Supplementary Budget for the financial year 2023/2024 and Revenue Authority (KRA) froze Nairobi City County accounts over Sh 2.8bn.
According to a report by CoB Margaret Nyakang’o the county did not meet the required threshold of the Public Finance Management Act.
County staff have not received their salaries up to this time.
