Nairobi News

Three Nairobi County Assembly officials were on Friday arrested by Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) officers at the Assembly precincts.

This comes after the Director of Public Prosecution Mr Noordin Haji ordered for the arrest of five county assembly staff who have been implicated in irregular award of tenders and payments at the Assembly and a proprietor of a company that did business with the Assembly.

Those who have been arrested are Deputy Clerk Addah Awuor Onyango, James Kariuki Kaguma who is a senior procurement officer and senior Finance and Planning officer Fredrick Macharia Mwangi.

The remaining three are Assembly Clerk Jacob Ngwele, the proprietor of Primara Ventures Mr Raphael Mwinzi Maluki and Philomena Kavinya Nzuki, a principal accountant at the Assembly.

Mr Haji said that the DCI initiated investigations into the irregular award of tenders and payments at the Assembly after receiving the County Assembly’s internal audit report for the financial year 2016/2017.

IRREGULAR TENDERS

He said that the investigations revealed that Primara Ventures was irregularly awarded a tender for the supply of books worth Sh997, 926 to the Nairobi County Assembly Resource Center.

Mr Haji said that the investigations by the DCI revealed that the money was paid by the Assembly to Primara Ventures on June 29, 2017 yet no books were ever supplied and so the money was irregularly paid.

The DPP also stated that the investigations revealed that the said tender was never advertised and the quotations used during the process were irregularly prepared by procurement officers attached to the Nairobi County Assembly.

“I have independently reviewed the file and I am satisfied that the persons named herein actively participated in the perpetration of the alleged criminal activities and should therefore be charged and prosecuted,” said Mr Haji.