Treasury bosses Rotich, Thugge arrested over dams scandal

By , K24 Digital
On Mon, 22 Jul, 2019 11:11 | < 1 min read
Rotich and Thugge
Treasury CS Henry Rotich and his PS Kamau Thugge.
Treasury CS Henry Rotich and his PS Kamau Thugge. They have been freed on bond after being charged in the dams scandal. PHOTO | FILE

Treasury bosses Henry Rotich and his PS Kamau Thugge have been arrested in connection with Sh21 billion paid to a bankrupt Italian firm for the construction of two mega dams in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.

The Treasury mandarins were arrested by detectives from the Special Crimes Unit and taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters on Kiambu Road in Nairobi.

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji ordered their arrest on Monday over their role in the awarding of the multi-billion shilling contract to the insolvent Italian firm CMC de Ravena for the building of the Kimwarer and Arror dams.

The country's top prosecutor said he plans to have the senior government charged with alleged conspiracy to defraud, failure to comply with procurement regulations and abuse of office.

"Many procurement procedures as stipulated by the law for such projects were ignored and the law was circumvented to ensure that CMC di Ravena got the contract," Mr Haji said.

The DPP noted that the officials, who were to raise an anomaly in the procurement process, went ahead to award the contract to CMC di Ravena at the time the firm was straining and getting into voluntary liquidation back in Italy.

Mr Haji said he will write to the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua to have the two officials ordered to step aside.

A Kerio Valley Development Authority board member and the acting managing director Francis Kipkech are among several other top officials who have also been arrested.

The above two were taken to the Eldoret West Police Station awaiting arraignment.

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