Economy

Waiguru grilled for hours over Sh791m NYS scam

anne

Ms Anne Waiguru, former Devolution and Planning secretary. PHOTO | FILE

Former Devolution Secretary Anne Waiguru was Monday grilled by anti-corruption detectives, days after she was linked to the National Youth Service scam.

The inquiry by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives comes a week after Josephine Kabura Irungu swore a damning affidavit linking the former Cabinet secretary to the theft of funds through fictitious contracts.

She arrived at the EACC offices minutes before 1pm and was still there by 6pm.

The anti-graft agency had earlier cleared Ms Waiguru of the allegations that she was involved in the financial scam, but Ms Kabura stated in her affidavit that she knew everything that was going on.

Ms Kabura also alleged that Ms Waiguru approved payments to individuals and deposits to bank accounts.

The businesswoman claims in the affidavit that prior to the Sh791 million scandal, Ms Waiguru had helped her “secure other contracts, with about 30 LPOs for my other companies, at NYS, with a value in excess of Sh400 million.” Ms Kabura is set to appear before the EACC Tuesday.

READ: Contractor says Waiguru used her as NYS front

She claimed the dealings had a web of police officers, journalists, businessmen, government officials and other people in the 102-paragraph affidavit which opens a fresh insight into the scam.

Philip Kinisu, the chairman of EACC, last week said that Ms Waiguru was cleared on other NYS investigations and not the theft of Sh791 million.

In her affidavit, Ms Kabura mentioned Ms Waiguru, her personal assistant Betty Maina, Mr Hassan Noor who was the Chief of Staff in the ministry and Mr Joseph Mugwanja who is the director of the Banking Fraud Department.