PART ONE
- Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation lost nearly Kshs. 1.2 billion in questionable payments for electricity poles
- The looting involved a cartel of top managers at the state corporation in collaboration with a long list of companies that supplied the substandard electricity poles
- REREC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Mbugua ordered the chief finance manager accounting Davis Cheruiyot who was then on leave to come back and execute the payment
The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) lost nearly Kshs. 1.2 billion in questionable payments to electricity poles suppliers, the poles had been certified as substandard by REREC’s own inspectors.
The looting involved a cartel of top managers at the state corporation in collaboration with a long list of companies that supplied the substandard electricity poles.
Emerging details show that the authorization of the payments was cleared by the REREC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Mbugua who ordered the chief finance manager accounting Davis Cheruiyot who was at the time on leave to come back on duty to execute the payment transitions.
They also show that the poles were supplied by a horst of companies to its depots in various parts of the country where inspections were conducted by the REREC team led by Mr Philemon Langat and witnessed by at least six witnesses from the corporation.
The inspection and testing of the poles failed to meet the REREC standard requirements. The inspections were conducted in April of 2019 and the payments effected at the end of the same year.
According to documents in our possession, the team conducting the testing the poles that declared them as having failed the standard requirements apart from Mr Langat included Lawrence Makau, John Kamanga, Eng. C. Koech, Lawrence Makona, Eng. Benson Oungo, Judy Kiragu, Geoffrey Jiago and Sera Momanyi.
The others included Lawrence Makokha, Eng. Colletta Koech, Nelson Odongo, Ali Fadhil, and Eng. Benson Ougo among others.
The document headed the Rural Electrification Authority Test Results for Poles (10M) dated March 29th, 2019 in part reads: “The poles that failed the tests conducted were witnessed by the General Manager Power Distribution and Regional Coordination Eng. Esther Ruto, the Chief Finance Manager Accounting Davis Cheruiyot, Manager Strategy and Planning Francis Mutua among others.”
The documents show that the testing was done in Kisumu’s Awasi area, Mariakani in Mombasa, Makuyu in Central Kenya among others as part of the government’s ongoing going Rural Electrification Programme initiated by the President Uhuru Kenyatta administration.
Illegal payments whose details per individual company that supplied the poles is a matter which the REREC Board of Directors chairman Prof. Simon Gicharu is aware of and triggered President Uhuru Kenyatta to ordered the Cabinet Secretary for Energy to initiate investigations into the matter early this year because the rural electrification programme had stalled.
According to insider sources, the Cabinet Secretary Energy Charles Keter dispatched the Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives to the state corporation early this year whose findings were recently dispatched to the Director Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Hajji to initiate the prosecution of the top managers who were involved in the scam.
The companies listed to have been involved in the scam as suppliers of the sub-standard poles included Wood Treatment Technologies, Samfort Logistics Ltd, Tropical saw Mills, Abao International Ltd, Lakewood Treatment Ltd, Timber Treatment International, Global Wood Treatment Ltd, and Saga East Africa Ltd.
The others are Tri Top, Pole and Post Ltd, Wood World International, Electro Gas Engineering and Construction Ltd, Meru Wood Industries, Janwill Enterprises Ltd, Marura Power Poles Plant, Cresta Investments Ltd, and Line Enterprises Ltd.
PART TWO
- Growing fears of prosecutions against senior managers loom large at the corporation, some have opted to work from remote locations for fear of arrests
- CEO Peter Mbugua said: “This is an old matter that is in-correct but is being politicized
- General Manager Power Distribution and Regional Coordination Eng. Ruto said that she was aware of the issue
The Weekly Vision understands that soon after President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the Cabinet Secretary for Energy Charles Keter to initiate investigations over the electricity poles scandal at REREC, fear of prosecutions against senior managers looms large at the corporation. Some have opted to work from remote locations for fear of arrests.
When contacted for a comment over the scandal REREC CEO Peter Mbugua said: “This is an old matter that is in-correct but is being politicized by personalities who have vested interests that may not have been fulfilled and therefore engaging in vicious corporate battles.”
He confirmed that indeed the matter had come to the attention of the head of state and also the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Energy Charles Keter adding that if any of their suppliers submitted substandard electric poles, they were rejected and ordered to replace them with those meeting the REREC standard requirements.
“The tests conducted by our professionals included average penetration in millimetres and penetrations in terms of Kilogrammes, it wrong by the personalities who are politicizing the matter to claim that REREC lost more than Kshs. 1. 2 billion in payment to sub-standard electricity poles,” said Mr Mbugua.
The CEO’s assertions were however contradicted by REREC General Manager Power Distribution and Regional Coordination Eng. Ruto who said that she was aware of the issue concerning the losses at the Corporation.
She said: “In fact the last time I heard of the matter there were reports that the matter had ended at the courts in Milimani, but I do not know how it went on there, but it is true that our inspection teams found that many of the poles supplied did not meet our standards.”
The Finance Chief confirmed that he had been summoned from leave sometimes back to attend on urgent office matters, but declined comment on whether it involved the payment of money to the substandard poles supplied to the corporation by various contracted companies.
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