KPA chief Manduku in court Tuesday over new graft charges

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director Daniel Manduku was arrested Monday and is expected to be presented in court Tuesday to answer to charges of unlawfully awarding tenders for the construction of cargo storage facilities at the Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD).

His arrest came after more than 15 months of investigations over a myriad of corruption allegations and legal drama that prevented the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from arresting him.

DCI George Kinoti said Monday evening that Mr Manduku will be charged with a number of counts of corruption-related crimes. “We have been investigating so many cases against him, but this is a new crime,” said the DCI.

“He is now within our custody, but we shall definitely present him in court. You cannot steal public money or break the law using a public office that taxpayers have entrusted you with and continue walking free,” he said.

Mr Manduku has been walking free since December last year courtesy of a Sh500,000 anticipatory bail issued by Justice Eric Ogolla at the High Court in Mombasa.

The embattled KPA boss, however, lost in an application that sought to prevent the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) or the DCI from charging him with corruption.

Since then it has been a matter of when and not if Mr Manduku who is facing a myriad of corruption related allegations will finally have his day in court.

The DCI had previously said that he had listed up to 22 possible charges against Mr Manduku and other senior port managers over alleged irregularities in projects.

However, what is taking Mr Manduku to court is the awarding of two companies linked to powerful and influential families to construct peripheral cargo storage facilities on behalf of the KPA next to the ICD.

The second accused in the case is the Commissioner of Customs and Border Control at the Kenya Revenue Authority Kevin Safari.

One of the companies that was awarded the controversial tender, the Nairobi Inland Container Terminal Limited (NICT) did not even apply for the tender which was floated towards the end of 2018 in the first place.

The second company — Mitchell Cotts Freight Limited — did not pay for the licence required to operate a peripheral storage facility and only did so realising the DCI had started investigations of how the tender was awarded.

“Daniel Ogwoka Manduku and Kevin Lewis Safari between December 31, 2019 and January 27, 2020 within the Republic of Kenya conspired to defeat justice by causing the payment of Sh3,166,669 for the KPA peripheral facility licence for Mitchell Cotts Freight Kenya Limited in order to correct an illegality in the unpayment of the same,” says count five in the charge sheet.