Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Senate oversight committee has asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to probe how three firms contracted by Kiambu County government could have siphoned more than Sh10 billion between 2014 and 2022.

The Senate County Public Accounts Committee chaired by Homa Bay lawmaker Moses Kajwang’ while examining audit reports for the financial years between 2018 and 2022, heard that the three firms, Kiambu Pay, County Pro and Zizi, signed an opaque agreement with the county government to collect own source revenue on their behalf.

This is after Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu raised questions over the engagement of the firms by the previous administrations of the then governors William Kabogo (2013-2017), Ferdinand Waititu (2017-2020) and James Nyoro (2020-2022).

Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi laid bare how the county government may have lost close to Sh10billion through alleged interference with the systems of the three revenue collection firms contracted by his predecessors.

Intentionally calibrated

According to Wamatangi, the systems were not only faulty and erroneous but were intentionally calibrated not to give accurate results.

He further stated that despite the devolved unit paying for the development, and use of the systems, it never got to own the systems as they still remained as properties of those who had been contracted by the county.

“Most of the systems were not intended to help the county collect revenue but to help the owners and beneficiaries of the systems to siphon money from the county. That is my conviction,” said Wamatangi.

He went on: “We went to Thika slaughterhouse and had a trader pay Sh20,000. The system did not report back the transaction after six hours but with a payment of Sh16,000.”

Wamatangi’s allegations irked the Senators with Kajwang’ calling for the Anti-Corruption Commission to pitch tent in Kiambu County and unearth the malpractice, saying Sh10billion is not pocket change.

“EACC, let us keep an interest in this matter because it could be a quick win in dealing with people who have been fleecing the public. We will be failing Kiambu people if we do not do justice to that matter. This is money that comes from hustlers. They were stealing from ‘mama mboga’, slaughterhouses, and traders. It is completely unacceptable,” said Kajwang’.

Samson Cherargei (Nandi) said the owners of the three firms should be summoned to get to know what they were doing at the county government.