Kerra boss Kandie in court after activist petitions graft case
By Ronald Anthony Mwangi, July 22, 2024Philemon Kiprop Kandie, Director General of Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) could find himself in trouble after an activist filed a petition in court accusing him of corruption and irregular misuse of taxpayer’s funds amounting to Sh4.6 billion meant for constructing and maintaining rural roads.
Francis Awino, the President of the Bunge la Mwananchi organisation wants the Constitutional and Human Rights Division to declare Kandie unfit to hold public office for misuse of office allegations.
Awino further accuses the officer of misappropriating funds and fraudulent award of multi-billion tenders on the upgrading roads at the state corporation.
“A declaration the respondent(Kandie) is unfit to hold any public office because he has grossly violated the constitution and other laws and is guilty of gross misconduct,” states the activist.
The Kerra boss has also been accused of violating the procurement laws in awarding tenders and stealing Kenya taxpayers’ funds through a well-calculated conspiracy to defraud in collusion with highly politically connected individuals.
Refused to vacate
Awino explains in the petition how Kandie who was barred by the High Court last year from being the Director General of Kerra has refused to vacate the office and continued to conduct several illegalities and unlawful actions leading to major corruption scandals at the state agency.
“There was illegal, unlawful, and irregular misuse of taxpayer’s money a fact that was actually confirmed by the Auditor General’s report leading to suspension of Kandie by the court in late May 2023 by Employment and Labour Court Justice James Rika who also found that the process of his recruitment was marred by procedural impropriety and quashed his appointment ,” Awino argues
According to the petition, Kandie has continued to serve in the capacity even after High Court having barred him from holding office.
Last year the High Court ruled that the process used to appoint Kandie was unconstitutional he however moved to the Court of Appeal yo challenge the orders but it was declined.
Awino alleges that during his tenure, Kandie has been forseeing fraud by awarding road upgrading tenders to firms that had been placing the highest bid price thereby shortchanging companies that had bid the lowest.
The petitioners say that in a complaint lodged with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), Kandie committed procurement fraud by irregularly awarding an India Private Limited-based firm namely M/s Shengi Engineering Constructions with a total bid amount of Sh 4,692,818, 332 instead of M/s Guanxi Hydroelectric that had the lowest bid amount of Sh 3,964,406,845 as per the regulations.
Court documents show that one of the firms contesting the tender award was over-quoted by Sh1 billion, wherein Kandie intended to award any of the said projects to the highest bidder, most especially where a decision was made to award the highest bidder where the difference in tender sums exceeds Sh 1 billion.
Other than one of the bidders whose financial bid in Tender No. RWC 652 was below the intended estimate, all the other bidders who submitted their financial bids in the other tenders had financial estimates which were way above the budgets of the projects by over Sh1 billion.