INVESTIGATIONS

A fresh investigation has been ordered into the scandal through which a scheme to subsidise maize for the drought-hit poor ended up enriching the political and business elite.

The orders to restart the long-running probe came barely two days after Cabinet minister William Ruto was transferred from the Agriculture ministry, which was the first of three ministries mentioned adversely over the scandal. Mr Ruto, who strenuously denies any involvement, repeats in an interview that his removal all to do with political alignments than his performance.

A special team of 20 detectives has been assembled to pursue investigations into the maize scam — which has seen several senior civil servants suspended — and another scandal in which subsidised fertiliser was repackaged for sale, the Saturday Nation confirmed on Friday. Informed sources said the investigations were ordered by the Office of the President to dig out more evidence that could lead to prosecution of suspects.

The maize scandal of 2008-2009 was the subject of a detailed report by Pricewaterhousecoopers which implicated senior officials in the Office of the Prime Minister and the ministries of Agriculture and Special Programmes. The report accuses Mr Ruto, now the Higher Education minister, of using his personal assistant to write a letter to the National Cereals and Produce Board for an individual to be allocated 1,000 bags.

But the minister denies any wrong doing, saying the man is disabled and, in any case, he did not get the maize despite his recommendation. The report also named Dr Mohammed Isahakia, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister as a co-director in a company that was irregularly allocated maize from the subsidized maize scheme.

While Dr Isahakia claimed he thought the company was “dormant”, his co-director and former MP Elias Barre Shill confirmed having made Sh2 million from the maize. Dr Romano Kiome, the Permanent Secretary at the Agriculture ministry at the time is accused of authoring a note in favour of a miller from Imenti to be considered for allocation of maize.

While he claims he was cleared by KACC, the audit firm says no evidence was provided to prove this.The personal assistant to the Prime Minister Mr Caroli Omondi is accused of influencing the inclusion of a firm, Afgri, in the tender process to deliver maize and varying the price and amount the firm was to supply.

On February 13, this year, President Kibaki suspended Dr Isahakia, Dr Kiome and the PS, Special Programmes Ministry Mr Ali Dawood Mohammed, under whose docket the Strategic Grain Reserves fall, for three months to pave way for further investigations into the scam.

Also sent home is Mr Omondi. The findings of the investigations by PriceWaterhousecoopers, it is understood, had some loose ends which needed to be tightened up. For instance, sources at the OP said, they will want evidence that ties those implicated in the scandal with the crime.

The team will also investigate the Nairobi City cemetery land and Free primary education funds scams upon completion of the Agriculture ministry probe. The detectives picked from various Criminal Investigation Department (CID) units on Wednesday received a signal instructing them to move from their normal duties to the new assignment which is scheduled to start at the Agriculture ministry.

Most of the detectives have already cleared their desks at previous stations and will next week begin the investigations. The officers are drawn from the Serious Crimes Unit, Economic and Commercial Crimes Unit all under the Investigations Bureau and the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit.

Interrogation

Another 18 CID detectives had earlier this year been deployed to KACC to assist in various other investigations. One group of detectives assigned by the CID headquarters to the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) assisted in the interrogation of seven senior government officials including three permanent secretaries implicated in the maize scam.

In another scam within the Ministry of Agriculture in March, more than 218 metric tonnes of fertiliser destined for farmers at subsidised prices was found being repackaged on the premises of a private company. The fertiliser was recovered at Athi River after a tip off that the company was repackaging fertiliser in branded bags.

KACC has recently sought to be assigned more detectives to conduct forensic audits into several cases it is investigating. A KACC report on the fraudulent purchase of cemetery land by the Nairobi City Council also implicated top officials at the Ministry of Local Government and City Hall.

Following the report, President Kibaki also suspended 13 senior officials at the Ministry of Local Government and City Hall led by Permanent Secretary Sammy Kirui and a senior officer, Mr Reuben Rotich, who were implicated in the Sh283 million scandal. City Hall officials who were suspended included former Town Clerk John Gakuo, head of legal affairs, Ms Mary Ng’ethe and her deputy then, Mr Geoffrey Katsolleh.