Many Kenyans have been wondering who is Ivy Minyow Onyango, the lady whose 6 months old company was awarded tender by KEMSA to supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
This interest has been piqued by the claims that ivy was used by a powerful Jubilee Politician who brokers large Government tenders for sale.
Ivy incorporated the company in question, Kilig Limited, on January 22, 2020 according to records at Company registry only for it to be awarded contract to supply PPEs at an inflated cost of Sh9,000, double the market price of Sh4,500 in barely half a year of its existence. The company was to supply 450,000 PPEs sets.
Who is Ivy Minyow Onyango and why does it matter? Ivy Minyow Onyango is a 27 year old Kenyan Advocate of High Court of Kenya who was admitted to the bar early last year 2019 after being gazetted by the Council of Education on 21st December 2018.
Ivy joined Kenya School of Law in January 2017 for Advocates Training Programme. Previously, she was a student at the Kenyatta University School of Law (KUSOL) from 2011 and went to Maryhill High School in Thika for her secondary school education.
In the LSK Website, Ivy Minyow Onyango Advocate is listed as an active holder of 2020 Practicing Certificate. She discloses that she practices at “self” and gives her physical address as CMM Gardens along Rhapta Road, Westlands in Nairobi.
In terms of areas of legal practice, Ivy reveals she her practice Commercial Law-General (40%), Intellectual Property Law (20%) and Conveyancing Law (40%). This raises the possibility that Ivy may have incorporated the company Kiliq Limited for a client in which case she may enjoy the benefit of Client-Advocate privilege.
Besides legal practice, Ivy dabbles in fashion business. She is both a model for Kung’ara Kenya Boutique and owner of an Online Cloth Shop, Office Dress, which specializes in ladies office wear and has been active since October 2018. Ivy is not active on twitter and has since closed her Instagram account.
No doubt nothing in Ivy Minyow Onyango’s profile explains how her nascent company bagged a whooping Ksh. 4 Billion tender by single sourcing. In any case, her personal profile as a young advocate and upcoming fashion model has no possible correlation with occupational health and safety equipment supply such as PPEs.
All indications are that Ivy Minyow Onyango’s name and company was possibly used as proxy by a powerful and well-connected individual to get a Sh. 4 Billion contract, an amount which is beyond he turnover of most PPE manufacturing companies. KEMSA has to explain why didn’t sources the critical supplies from well-known manufacturers.
At the same time, the alleged powerful Jubilee Official who is possibly hiding behind Ivy Onyango’s name and her company Kiliq Limited and who intended to sell the hefty tender for 10% kickback needs to be named and shamed.
Kenyans wait to see how EACC will compel KEMSA to reveal why and how they gave such a large tender to a shell company.
Facts
Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika’s husband John Mburu and politician Tony Gachoka’s brother, Willbroad Gatei Gachoka alias William Gatei Muiruri, are behind the controversy surrounding Kemsa Covid-19 tender worth Sh4
billion. A firm known as Kilig Limited, was being pushed to land the lucrative tender and Kenya Commercial Bank was to fund for the deliveries.
Mburu is a close associate of deputy president William Ruto. He is currently facing criminal charges in court in relation to his clearing firm based in Mombasa. He is one of the key financiers of Ruto’s presidential bid 2022. His wife Susan is well placed in Ruto’s campaigns 2022. On the other side, Gatei is a friend to Jubilee deputy chairman, David Murathe.
Documents in our possession show that Kilig Limited owners transferred tenders to another firm to deal with Kemsa. The DP side in Jubilee was out to use Kilig in Kemsa deals but ended up being shortchanged, hence the current outcry from the side. Willbroad Gatei Gachoka is an aide of Murathe and was sacked by Uhuru Kenyatta on December 18 2019 as chairman of Kenya Planters Cooperative Union after the board of directors awarded themselves hefty allowances leaving it dry.
On January 22, 2020, Gachoka had Kilig Limited registered with a Chinese National Zhu Jinping of P O Box 36814-00200 Nairobi. On June 16, 2020, Kilig Limited after landing a lucrative deal at Kemsa, engaged a firm Entec Technology Company Ltd of P O Box 37925-00100 Nairobi, to deliver PPE kits to Kemsa from China at the price of USD 28,535,000 that is Sh3 billion.
John Mburu is associated with Entec remotely and was to clear the goods with KCB funding the tender. Kilig Limited having brokered the tender from Kemsa at Sh4 billion played it safe by involving Entec thus not being responsible for any criminal or legal implication. Those in the deal were to share a cool Sh1.2 billion.
Kilig Limited and Entec Technology entered in what industry players call a bidding commercial contract. The broker was Mburu, well versed in clearing and forwarding deals. By virtue of being close to Murathe, Gatei kept on dropping Murathe’s name and that of State House.
It was on these grounds that appearing before the senate health committee, John Manjari, the suspended Kemsa CEO revealed, how he was under pressure from CS Mutahi Kagwe and PS Susan Mochache to award tenders to specific firms. Entec was to supply PPE sets in two dispatches.
First were 200,000 kits on June 28 2020 and the second installment of 239,000 on July 10, 2020. Documents we have show, to avoid any suspicion in the dealing, Kilig was to enter an Escrow Account Management Agreement with Entec Technology.Jonah Manjari
Here once Kemsa paid Kilig, it was mandatory for it to pay Entec. Here KCB was brought in the deal. Why KCB being a public bank was to fall under the pressure of political wheeler-dealers. Entec Technology in the documents signed with Kilig gave bank account details where its payments were to be forwarded.
The said account transacts business in USD is Stanbic Bank, Westgate Branch. By last week, investigators in the probe ordered by Uhuru were tracing transactions involving Kemsa payments to local banks to firms involved. Reports indicate, after Kemsa scams erupted and went public, no payments were made to escrow account. Fearing arrest, Gatei and Zhu Jinping moved shares of Kilig Limited to a city young lawyer as a major shareholder.Susan Mochache
Gatei and Ivy Minyow Onyango, the young lawyer are lovers.
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