Deputy President William Ruto has denied reports that Sh21 billion has been lost in Arror and Kimwarer dam projects in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.
Speaking during the launch of a report on the state of Judiciary in Nairobi on Thursday, Dr Ruto said only expenditure of Sh7 billion is in question.
JKIA TAKEOVER
“You’ve heard that government has lost about Sh21 billion in Kimwarer and Arror dam, which is a flat lie!” he said at the Supreme Court.
“The money in question is about Sh7 billion and for every coin that has been paid, we have a bank guarantee. No money will be lost because we are a responsible government.”
However, President Kenyatta’s deputy did not give details of the unexplained expenditure and the alleged bank guarantees.
He called on the public to desist from raising unauthenticated claims on corruption, saying no funds have been lost.
“It is not right to claim Sh9 billion has been lost then when going to court a person is charged with loss of Sh100 million. Kenyans then ask where is the other 8.9 billion. Let us be faithful,” he said.
His reaction comes a day after it emerged that a company associated with his Chief of Staff, Mr Ken Osinde, and other big shots has been caught up in the scandal.
Mr Osinde, a former envoy to Germany, Romania and Bulgaria, is listed as a director of Sanlam General Insurance Ltd, together with Telkom Kenya chief executive officer and former director-general of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board Mugo Kibati, and the estate of the late Cabinet minister John Michuki.
The DP also took issue with Parliament’s ongoing investigations into planned Kenya Airways’ takeover of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
CJ MARAGA
He said MPs were coming in between what he termed as a “good deal” between KQ and the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
The National Assembly’s Transport committee is looking into the plan after questions were raised over KQ’s capacity to run Kenya’s and East Africa’s biggest airport.
In his address, Judge Maraga acknowledged corruption in the judiciary, saying efforts are being done to fight the vice.
He said court are open to scrutiny and challenged city lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi to file a a petition with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on alleged corruption in the Supreme Court.
He challenged the senior counsel to give evidence he has to prove that some Supreme Court judges were bribed to give favourable ruling in the Wajir gubernatorial election petition.
He said JSC would act firmly on the said judges if evidence proves wrongdoing.
UHURU
Justice Maraga said efforts have been made to reduce backlog of cases.
However, he said reduced funding had greatly hampered delivery of justice and requested the National Treasury to allocate more funds to stalled projects.
He also requested the state to allocate funds for construction of a new Court of Appeal building, saying the current facilities are congested.
On his part, President Kenyatta asked the Judiciary to refrain from setting policy and leave that role to Parliament.
He has also asked judiciary not to apply double standards while handling corruption cases and crooks in the judiciary.
He says the public have watched judiciary favour its own in the war against graft, without giving details. .
-nation.co.ke
