State House to mediate Kenya, UK ‘Chickengate’ cash row
Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Head of Civil Service Joseph Kinyua has been tasked to unlock the repatriation of the money recovered from a UK firm with a spending plan that will be agreeable between Kenya and Britain.
State House is seeking to end the standoff between the Kenyan authorities and the British government over the use of the £349,057.39 (Sh47 million) recovered from the Chickengate scandal.
Head of Civil Service Joseph Kinyua has now been tasked to unlock the repatriation of the money recovered from a UK firm with a spending plan that will be agreeable between Kenya and Britain.
Britain had recommended that the cash be used to buy bed nets for pregnant mothers and children in malaria-prone areas saying that this will spread the benefits to most Kenyans and has little operating costs.
But the Treasury and the anti-graft agency reckon that the money recovered from British printing firm Smith and Ouzman, which bribed Kenyan officials to secure contracts, should be used to buy 11 ambulances for various hospitals.
A senior official at the Attorney General’s office said Mr Kinyua would coordinate the National Treasury, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Asset Recovery Agency, and the State Law Office to expedite return of the seized funds to Kenya.
“The UK would like to have a say in how funds repatriated will be used. The head of civil service is drawing up a plan and coordinating this process,” said the official who did not want to be named. “He will help identify a flagship project that dramatises the success of chickengate trial.”
Mr Kinyua, who sits at State House, declined to comment on this story.
Britain’s Serious Crimes Office successfully prosecuted and had top managers of the security printing firm convicted for bribing officials of the Interim Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IIEC) and Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) and recovered the money that the public lost in inflated printing contracts.
Halakhe Waqo, Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) chief executive, had in March accused the UK government of trying to dictate what the funds should be used for, an assertion that the British government has since denied.
London’s Department for International Development (DfID) said that the money belongs to Kenyans and they are not in a position to dictate or give any orders on its use.
The DfID said the Chickengate cash was enough to buy about 140,000 bed nets, noting that increased coverage of insecticide-treated bed nets was key in lowering child mortality and reducing the risk of malaria among pregnant women.
A new fully equipped four-wheel drive ambulance costs about Sh8 million, meaning the seized funds can only buy six ambulances.
Kinyua’s involvement comes as the EACC cleared persons named in a London court as key players in the so-called chickengate scandal. It recommended criminal charges against former electoral boss James Oswago.
Those missing from the EACC list and were mentioned in the London Court include Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Issack Hassan, sacked Energy secretary Davis Chirchir and ex-Knec boss Paul Wasanga.
More than a dozen persons were named as having been part of the syndicate where Kenyan public servants pocketed Sh52 million in bribes codenamed ‘chicken’ to award contracts to Smith & Ouzman.
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