Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi quizzed over NHIF scandal
Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.
What you need to know:
- The estimated loss at the moment stands at Sh150 million.
- A forensic trail of the money linked to Mr Sudi, according to investigators, shows that a law firm which received part of the proceeds of the scandal bought two cars from the MP.
A year-long investigation into how individuals and hospitals made away with millions of shillings from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) through fake claims Tuesday started to bear fruit after Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi was questioned by detectives.
Detectives believe that employees at NHIF transformed a noble initiative that would have seen patients seeking medication in India get treated without paying into a money-minting venture that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of shillings.
In 2018, NHIF signed a memorandum of understanding with a number of hospitals in India to facilitate Kenyans who travel there for treatment of terminal diseases.
At that time, data showed that more than 10,000 Kenyans were travelling annually to India to seek treatment.
Unscrupulous employees at the fund, however, saw this as an avenue to make money. They created fake patient records, which they used to make claims.
All this money, whose amount is still unknown, ended up in the accounts of the employees and their accomplices who don’t work at the firm.
Tuesday, Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi was summoned to answer questions about his role in the scam whose estimated loss at the moment stands at Sh150 million.
Mr Sudi arrived at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu road in the morning.
He proceeded to the Economic Crimes Unit where he spent the better part of the day being questioned before leaving shortly after 5pm.
A source close to the investigation told the Nation that they are investigating whether the whereabouts of some of the money stolen from NHIF went to the controversial legislator.
A forensic trail of the money linked to Mr Sudi, according to investigators, shows that a law firm which received part of the proceeds of the scandal bought two cars from the MP. On questioning, the law firm, whose name we cannot disclose at the moment as it could jeopardise investigations, said that the cars were bought in exchange for a piece of land.
Sources, however, say that detectives on the case have been unable to ascertain the link between the land, which the MP allegedly sold to the law firm, and the two luxury cars.
Additionally, detectives are trying to find out if one of the MP’s close family members who works at NHIF took part in the scandal.
But when he left the DCI headquarters last evening, Mr Sudi insisted that the two transactions were genuine and that the DCI was merely playing politics. “They questioned me about a piece of land I sold to a company that wanted to build a hospital. According to me that is a private business done on a willing buyer and willing seller basis,” the MP told the Nation.
Mr Sudi, a vocal politician who is a key ally of Deputy President William Ruto, is not new to controversy. He is currently out on a Sh1 million bond after denying two counts of hate speech and offensive conduct.
