Investigations into a firm linked to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chairman Philip Kinisu took a new twist after it emerged some MPs narrowly escaped the dragnet laid by the anti-graft agency last week just before they could receive a Sh20 million bribe.
EACC sleuths, acting on a tip-off from a member of a parliamentary committee investigating Esaki Limited, had laid an ambush at a five-star hotel in anticipation of the cash to be delivered by a prominent businesswoman to a female legislator who would have shared out the loot with colleagues.
However, the plan collapsed after the legislators, suspected to have got wind of the trap, called off the deal. Yesterday, EACC spokesman Yassin Amaro was non-committal on the veracity of the revelations, only saying there are several investigations going on into affairs of Esaki Ltd, a firm linked to Kinisu.
“Yes, there are several investigations going on which I cannot divulge to you, including some related to parliament. But we shall give details at the end of the investigations,” Amaro told People Daily on phone. But a detective privy to the investigations confided that EACC had been following leads that a businesswoman had been trying to compromise some legislators with a view to sway the probe.
“I can tell you this would have been a trap of the year had everything gone as planned. The whole thing only backfired at the last minute,” said the detective. The investigators are also seeking to establish whether the three directors of Esaki—Kinisu, his wife and daughter—had any ties with a former Cabinet secretary, a former senior State House official and an influential female MP from Mt Kenya region.
And yesterday, Homa Bay MP Peter Kaluma said he was not aware of the bribery claims, but added he suspected the fighting in EACC was an in-house matter.
“All what we are hearing is being fuelled by the commissioners themselves with a helping hand from the secretariat,” he said. Kaluma said for the anti-graft agency to be cleaned up and allowed to function without squabbles, the best thing was to remove all officials in the management, including commissioners and the secretariat.
Kiharu MP Irungu Kang’ata, also denied knowledge of any plot to scuttle the ongoing probe. “I am not aware of any bribery plot by members to receive cash to clear the commission chairperson in the ongoing probe. In any case, hearing of the petition filed last week has not even started,” he said.
The bribery allegations emerged as records from the Registrar of Companies now indicate that Kinisu had actually resigned from Esaki Ltd on April 19, 2016 and not 2008 as he had claimed during a press conference. This was two months after his appointment as EACC chairman, a revelation that has prompted detectives to question the timing of his resignation.
A multi-agency task force comprising team of officers from Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Asset Recovery Agency and the Kenya Revenue Authority has also confirmed that Kinisu chaired several meetings related to the plunder of nearly Sh800 million from the National Youth Service (NYS) despite the fact that a firm linked to him was one of the suppliers to the State agency.
The task force has been probing allegations that Esaki, where Kinisu held majority shares before resigning, fraudulently received more than Sh35 million from NYS. A civil society group, Bunge La Mwananchi, had claimed that Esaki had been paid for the supply of goods NYS in 2015.
Preliminary investigations showed that the firm had actually done business with NYS when it was rocked by a Sh791 million scandal. Kinisu has already recorded a statement DCI and at least three parliamentary committees are carrying out investigations into the matter.
His fellow commissioners and the secretariat have subsequently asked him to step aside to pave way for independent investigations into an issue they say has soiled EACC’s image.
But Kinisu has dismissed the allegations, stating that Esaki had done business with NYS before he was appointed EACC boss. “A scheme has now been hatched and is being executed right now to malign me using wild allegations,” he alleged.
But new details contradict Kinisu’s version of the narrative. Interestingly, though he held the majority shares at Esaki, while his wife and daughter had one each, the firm was registered under the provisions of gender and youth empowerment platform.
“Esaki did not qualify to supply anything to NYS since the majority shareholder was neither a woman nor a youth,” sources at DCI said. And in another twist turn of events, two members of Bunge La Mwananchi who had brought the issue into limelight by swearing an affidavit to EACC, have authored another affidavit dissociating themselves from the matter.
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