Contractor pleads for Sh27 million payment seven years after building Mandera prison wall

At the height of terror attacks in Mandera in 2016, the county security team gathered intelligence of a planned attack on the GK Prison.

This was because the facility was holding six terror suspects who had been nabbed and their case was going on at the adjacent Mandera Law Courts.

This posed a security danger to the facility.

Mr Jacton Jillo, then officer in-charge, had informed the Mandera County security committee of a planned attack on the facility.

He reported that he had been informed by two women that a man posing as a charcoal seller was collecting information on the facility in readiness to attack and free the six remandees.

The county security committee chaired by then County Commissioner Fredrick Shisia requested to have a wall built and the contract was awarded to Thymaj Construction Company.

At the start, the company was paid Sh2.5 million and it had to raise the rest of the funds quickly, given the urgency of the job.

Seven years down the line, the company is yet to be paid Sh27 million with some shareholders dead with others having debts and medical bills to settle.

They are now appealing for President William Ruto’s intervention for the Department for Correctional Services to pay them.

Led by Mohamed Ahmed, the group said they were engaged to construct a perimeter wall at Mandera GK Prison in 2016, a project they completed within an agreed period with the department.

“Mandera GK Prison was at risk of being attacked by the Al-Shabaab terror group when they were contracted to build a security wall and watch towers at the facility. We completed the project within the agreed five months’ period but since then we have never been paid to date,” Mr Ahmed said.

 “We are troubled at the moment. We have hardware dealers and even some construction workers that are yet to be paid because monies are being held by the prisons department,” Mr Ahmed said.

Two of the shareholders at the company have since died before they enjoyed fruits of their hard labour.

Ms Fardosa Mohamed Robow, a shareholder, says her daughter’s health hangs by the thread due to failing health.

“My daughter has a heart condition and has been referred to India for specialised treatment. This is part of the funds I am to use to have her treated and yet there is nothing forthcoming,” a teary Ms Robow said.

Nasra Ibrahim Ahmed, the daughter, now bedridden is in Mandera town awaiting the unknown.

The directors blamed Ms Zeinab Hussein, a former Correctional services principal secretary for their untold suffering.

“Ms Hussein was very silent on this matter despite knowing that the project was complete and the certificate of completion awarded. Several letters from the Mandera security team and the regional commissioner’s office were all ignored,” Mr Ahmed claimed.

She had promised to have them paid in 2019.

Having knowledge of the non-payment, on January 25, 2021, Wycliffe Ogallo, the then Prisons Commissioner wrote to the PS over the Mandera GK Prison payment but still the contractor did not receive the payment.

In May 2022, three of the directors travelled to Nairobi and met Ms Safina Kwekwe who had taken over from Ms Hussein as the PS.

Ms Kwekwe promised to have the contract paid by July 2022.

“Ms Kwekwe was shocked that we had not been paid. She called in some officers and one Mr Mwangi promised to have us paid in July 2022 after he had made a special request for pending bills,” Mr Ahmed said.

At the same time, Mr Juluis Muia, the PS National Treasury and Economic Planning had requested for Sh5.7 billion for historical pending bills for account 1000452617.

On November 14, 2022, Thymaj Construction Company was asked to provide an IFMIS number, which the officials hoped they would now be paid but that also went silent.

The company directors were also asked to swear an affidavit confirming that they were yet to be paid.

A senior officer at Kenya Prisons Headquarters attributed delayed payments to corruption that the facility faced recently.

“It could be true that some contractors have not been paid and this is because of corruption incidents we have had. We had people who were claiming to be paid when they had supplied nothing or even not completed the projects,” she said.

The officer referred Nation.Africa back to Mandera where the officer in charge of the local correctional facility confirmed non-payment.

“The contractor is yet to be paid but we submitted what was required to our headquarters after the project was completed. Our headquarters is in a better position to explain the payment status as of now,” Mr Abass Abdinoor, the officer in charge of Mandera GK Prison said.

Our efforts to reach Correctional Services PS Mary Muthoni bore no fruits as her phone went unanswered.

The PS was yet to respond to our text messages by the time of going to press.

In 2019, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) foiled an attempted misuse of Sh4.8 billion of taxpayers’ money at the prisons department.

The money was to be used as an upfront for the supply of security items at the Prisons Department, according to EACC.

EACC boss Twalib Mbarak says the department was to pay Sh4.8 billion upfront for the supply of security items.

In another corruption case at the department, a prison-cleaning supervisor swindled the correctional services department of Sh257 million in ghost supplies.

The money was paid through the department's account at the Central Bank, ending in several properties and cash withdrawals by beneficiaries.

“We need to be paid to get our lives going. We have school fees to pay, debts to settle, medical bills and other demands that need money,” Mr Ahmed, said.