EACC Investigating Govt Officials Involved In New Scandal

The Chinese firm, which was declared unconstitutional, was awarded a tender without following due process.

Marvin Chege Marvin Chege
Sep 1, 2023 - 14:17 Updated: Sep 2, 2023 - 12:39
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EACC Investigating Govt Officials Involved In New Scandal
EACC offices at Integrity Centre in Nairobi. /FILE

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is investigating a corruption scandal involving two government officials, one of whom is sitting in the Senate.

The scandal involves Hon Reagan Kanini who sits in the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Andrew Michaels, a top government official as well as a Chinese company.

The Chinese firm, which was declared unconstitutional, was awarded a tender without following due process.

Money worth USD200 million (Ksh29 billion) was wired to the Chinese company's account based in Hong Kong, with investigators noting that there was a kickback from the same account to a Kenyan account.

The account that is linked to the said government officials is worth USD15 million (Ksh2.2 billion) with the anti-corruption body banking on the investigations to weed out corruption of such nature in the tendering process.

This comes amidst active investigations by EACC on 21 sitting and former governors over corruption and economic crimes involving tens of billions of public funds.

The current and former county bosses are being investigated over embezzlement of public funds, conflict of interest, procurement fraud, payroll fraud mainly through ghost workers, fraudulent pending bills, and blatant disregard of laws relating to financial management.

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