I am fighting graft, insists Ngilu

Water and Irrigation minister Charity Ngilu has admitted to incidences of impropriety in her Ministry, which she has been trying to eliminate.

The latest of these, she said, involved an attempt by a contractor to increase the cost of a dam under construction in Umaa, Kitui, by some Sh652 million.

Mrs Ngilu sought to link the contractor, Draft and Develop Engineers Ltd, with her former assistant minister, Mwangi Kiunjuri, with whom she has been trading graft accusations over the past two weeks.

She claimed that Mr Kiunjuri, now the Public Works assistant minister, was “very good friends” with the owners of the construction firm, Ms Mary W Mungai and Mr Peter Kibe.

She suggested Mr Kiunjuri has been a “godfather, agent and defender” of the contractor and was seeking to have her removed from the ministry so that the firm can be paid the disputed amount.

Work on the dam is incomplete and there are more under construction in Kiserian near Nairobi, Bandisa in Marsabit Koru in Nyanza, Mwache and Siyoi dam  and an additional dam in Kitele.

But Mr Kiunjuri immediately denied the allegations.

“The minister should stop panicking and wait for the truth because the truth will come out,” Mr Kiunjuri told the Nation on the phone.

He said he was in the process of consultation and would most likely address a press conference later in the day.

“The minister has not responded to any of the allegations I have made,” he added.

Mrs Ngilu said the board chairman has unilaterally suspended the managing director of the parastatal, Petronilla Ogut, over her refusal to pay the inflated cost.

But it was in her discussion of the ministry’s affairs that it emerged there had been long-running disputes between her and Mr Kiunjuri and with the board and the management of the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation.

Mrs Ngilu showed journalists an allegedly inflated claim of Sh512 million from Elburgon Stores, one of the firms the ministry has been dealing with, which she rejected.

“It had been happening before but we stopped this,” said the minister.

Newly appointed assistant minister Ferdinand Waititu said “there is more than meets the eye” in the fighting between the minister and her former assistant.

“Somebody can’t just say there was overpricing of a jembe (hoe) yet there are millions going here,” said Mr Waititu.

He added: “Kiunjuri is not telling everything. I have heard what people are saying in the corridors here (at the ministry). There will be more to come in two three weeks.”