David Kimosop (pictured) was arrested Friday morning on arrival from Congo over the Arror and Kimwarer dams’ scandal/FILE – KVDA
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 26-Former Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) Managing Director David Kipchumba Kimosop has been arrested.
Kimosop was arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Friday morning, on arrival from Tanzania.
“He is in custody now and will be taken to court,” DCI boss George Kinoti told Capital FM News.
Kimosop is among 28 suspects indicted over the Sh63 billion Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal that swallowed Henry Rotich from the National Treasury.
Rotich was charged on Monday alongside his Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge. Both have since been sacked and replaced.
Rotich was replaced by Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani while Thugge’s position was taken up by Dr Julius Muia.
Of the 28 suspects in the dams’ scandal, 10 were arraigned in court with the remaining 18 ordered to present themselves to the DCI for processing before they are arraigned in court.
Milimani magistrate Douglas Ogoti said he will issue warrants of arrests against those wo fail to honour his orders.
Rotich, Thugge and the others charged were freed on bond terms ranging from S750,000 to Sh50 million.
They denied charges of abuse of office, breach of procurement laws and regulations among other corruption-related charges.
Others still at large include officials of Italian firm CMC di Ravenna that was contracted to construct the dams and which was paid billions but has not commenced work four years later.
“The investigations established that government officials flouted all procurement rules and abused their oath of office to ensure the scheme went through,” Haji said on Monday when he approved the arrest of the officials.
While detailing their crimes, the Director of Public Prosecutions said the officials had breached public debt regulations.
“If this project was carried in the strict adherence to the law and existing policies in place to safeguard public interest, it should not have cost Sh63 billion. The evidence establishes malpractices that impacted on our national debt,” he said.
The multi-agency probe which was led by DCI boss Kinoti revealed that “Some Sh4.6 billion was borrowed in addition to the principal amount to pay interest in advance during the construction period, which to date has not commenced. As a country we continue to pay interest on the loan. We borrowed, the loan had interest, we borrowed more money to pay the interest which also attracted interest.”
And while the National Treasury released Sh643 million for the resettlements of the persons that would be affected by the projects and compensation of land acquired, there is no evidence that land has been acquired four years down the line.
“Furthermore, Kenya Forest Service any excision of forest land, pointing to significant adverse impact on the forest ecosystem,” the DPP said.
Rotich is on record confirming that the government had spent Sh12 billion to secure funding for the construction of the two dams, with the sum having been paid out to meet set conditions before the actual funding.
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