On April 20th 2022, former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i issued a stern warning to Kenyans over the forthcoming elections.
He said, ‘…if we are not careful, by the time we are done with this electoral cycle, we would have laundered criminals into our elective institutions”.
Perhaps what CS Matiang’i did not capture, is that criminals had already captured the state and were already well-placed inside parastatals.
The money politicians were dishing out to voters and those money lending companies that were being formed en masse were conduits for money laundering.
At the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the Director in charge of Urban Roads Development is one whose sudden wealth is raising eyebrows.
In the past, the problem was thought to be in the whole agency, but a close scrutiny established that smaller directors usurped powers making the whole of KURA appear corrupt.
Apart from financing political campaigns and laundering proceeds of bribery from KURA, Wilfred Oginga is said to have opened a lending firm by the name Koba Capital.
Koba Capital whose CEO is Richard Odak launders money for Wilfred Oginga.
Koba microfinance does more than just lending and financing business SMEs, vehicles, education, property and road construction. As a result, payments and kickbacks made in favour of Oginga allied proxy firms (mostly in Homabay County) are done in the pretext of servicing loans for road construction advanced to seal loopholes.
Oginga who makes it hard for contractors to win tenders let alone be paid without giving him ‘his cut’ is said to have amassed wealth at an alarming rate. He was a darling of the Azimio La Umoja politicians, notably Homabay Governor Gladys Wanga whose friendships with spills over from Cyprian Awiti’s time.
Had Azimio won the elections, Oginga would’ve been the KURA Director as he often boasted to his friends. But from houses in Nairobi and the Luo-Nyanza region, the KURA director swims in illicit cash gotten from the back of crying road contractors.
It is said that payment processes for his firms, registered by proxies (and those that pay bribes), are fast-tracked without regard for pending bills from other contractors. Even if those pending bills are small.
Investigation
On the back of the new war on corruption and professionalism in the security and anti-corruption agencies, a lobby group wants Wilfred Oginga questioned over his questionable wealth.
“The source of the lavish lifestyle of Wildred Oginga is a matter of concern and raises eyebrows as it is against the odds considering his salary remuneration. Oginga owns a corner house located in Kuwida upmarket Nairobi Karen area which during its construction, a Chinese firm was involved. Oginga has another house in Syokimau in Machakos County which was also constructed by the same very Chinese firm and H -Young which is doing multi-billion road tender contracts with KURA. Documents attached,” the lobby group which wants EACC and Assets Recovery Agency to investigate Wilfred Oginga wrote.
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