From selling expired cat food by exchanging expiry dates on their packages, Quickmart is now on the cunning game of selling expired meat products or using illegal food preservatives to increase shelf life of their food products Fresh.
Quickmart boasts of ‘Fresh and Easy’ products slogan to attract customers with appealing photos on social media. Freshness that seems to have been a dup on some products and it’s almost about to go south after one customer expressed his outrage after buying minced ‘fresh’ meat in one of their outlets, the victim cooked half of the packed minced meat for dinner then deep frozen the remaining half —only to wake up in the morning to a rude shock of fresh- red meat discoloration to a mucoid red minced meat with greenish hue.
“Guys better check the meat you’re consuming ?? i bought this minced meat yesterday @QuickmartKenya and cooked half and the rest on the freezer . So today took it out on the freezer to the fridge for cooking this evening. To my surprise the meet is green and slides like mucus.”
Well, research done by food experts gives a greenlight – safe colors of a discoloured red meat for consumption as either Reddish or Grayish or Brownish and with no foul smell – are the only colors that needs no red alert but any other color is unfit for human consumption like in this case.
Factors Affecting Color
1. Use of Muscles
Poultry provides a good opportunity to see and learn about the differences in meat colour. Meat cutters and cooks may often be asked why different parts of a chicken have white meat and other parts have dark meat, or why duck or game birds have mostly dark meat. The colour of the meat is determined by how the muscle is used. Upland game birds, such as partridge and grouse, that fly only for short bursts have white breast meat. In contrast, ducks and geese and most other game birds that fly long distances have exclusively dark meat. In domestic poultry (chickens and turkeys), there is a difference between breasts (white meat) and thighs and drumsticks (dark meat).
2. Proteins
Meat colour is associated with two proteins: myoglobin (in the muscle) and hemoglobin(in the blood). When animals are no longer alive and air comes in contact with the meat, myoglobin reacts with oxygen in an attempt to reach a state of equilibrium, at which point no further changes occur. As this process happens, the meat colour goes through three stages and three colours that are easy to see, especially on freshly cut beef meats:
*Purplish red (myoglobin): occurs immediately after a steak is sliced.
*Cherry red (oxymyoglobin): occurs several minutes after cutting and after exposure to oxygen.
*Brown (metmyoglobin): occurs when the iron in the myoglobin is oxidized, which usually takes about three days after cutting. (You may see steaks with this colour in the discount bin at a supermarket. The brown colour doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the product; in fact, purchasing meat at this stage is a great way to stock up on cheaper steaks for the freezer.)
3. Oxygen
Oxygen plays two important roles, which affect the colour in opposite ways. As soon as meat is cut, oxygen reacts with the myoglobin and creates the bright red colour associated with oxymyoglobin. This will continue to develop until the iron in the myoglobin oxidizes to the point of the metmyoglobin stage.
Oxidation can also occur when iron in the meat binds with oxygen in the muscle. This can often occur during the processing of round steak from the hip primal and can be identified by the rainbow-like colours that appear from the reflection of light off the meat surface. The condition will remain after the product is cooked and can often be seen on sliced roast beef used in sandwich making. This condition does not alter the quality of the meat; however, it is generally less attractive to consumers.
4. Age
The pale muscles of veal carcasses indicate an immature animal, which has a lower myoglobin count than those of more mature animals. Young cattle are fed primarily milk products to keep their flesh light in colour. However once a calf is weaned and begins to eat grass, its flesh begins to darken. Intact males such as breeding bulls have muscle that contains more myoglobin than females (heifers) or steers (castrated males) at a comparable age. Generally, beef and lamb have more myoglobin in their muscles than pork, veal, fish, and poultry. Game animals have muscles that are darker than those of domestic animals, in part due to the higher level of physical activity, and therefore they also have higher myoglobin.
Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek), DCI, Kenya food safety control authority, Ministry of Agriculture should move swiftly to assess the situation in the Supermarket’s retail outlets as this case might just be tip of the iceberg into the larger scale of unfit food products on sale in their shelves.
In 2019,NTV investigative expose by Dennis Okarirevealed how supermarkets are using toxic chemicals to make their meat look fresher for longer. Expose on these kind of hullabaloo that takes place within the food industry in the supermarkets revealed that meat sold in supermarkets is often lased with Sodium Metabisulphite and the labels changed to reflect new expiry dates. The chemical is so corrosive that the supermarket staff handling the meat have to wear protective gloves due to its harsh effects on the hands.
In that case of Denis Okari’s investigative expose, involved Naivas Supermarket whose perpetrators were brought to record. The meat were being manipulated to look fresh for the longest time and after the expose, it would be unwise of anybody to take Quickmart for a fool to continue the trend and so, there’s no possibility of excessive use of sodium metabisulphate in their recent case. It is a substance yet to be known. The chemical substance if so, might just a temperature change labile substance.
Like aforementioned, the normal color changes for a normal and safe red meat excludes the greenish hue and mucoid state, therefore, Quickmart must be put under thorough investigation on the same.
Seems the success of Quickmart is bangled with dubious means.
Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto apparently is a desperate man appearing strong when weak to confuse the enemy. DP Ruto who is walking on a tight rope with an option either to steadily balance himself through to reach the finishline or mess along the way and fall into Scheveningen, The Hague . He has been a hard rock to his Political competitors and pepper to his critics. A one-man-army against heavyweight political bigfish in the country who are maneuvering left, right and center trying to form alliances to spearhead a force to break his bubble.
DP Ruto is the most embattled political heavyweight in Kenya marinated with tremendous corruption allegations, extrajudicial killings to maim his critics that jeopardize his political moves.
Paul Gicheru. Photo|Courtesy
Since the surrender of one of his right hand man Lawyer Paul Gicheru to ICC, he (Ruto) is a man whose spirits are in limbo and seems the only option to sort his mess out is winning the Presidency, of which is likely to be through ballot or by bullet.
Mid this month – 15th July, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed charges against Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru for allegedly corruptly influencing witnesses. Gicheru surrendered after five years on the run for interfering with witnesses in the 2007/08 post-election violence cases. Some of the witnesses said that they were initially bribed by the prosecution to testify against Ruto and Sang.
The court had issued arrest warrants for three Kenyans — Walter Barasa, Gicheru and Phillip Bett — on charges of obstructing the course of justice. This was after chaos erupted on December 31, 2007, after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki as the presidential poll winner in a race he closely contested with ODM leader Raila Odinga. Over 1,500 people were killed, 650,000 people were displaced. Following the chaos, DP William Ruto was charged with crimes against humanity alongside journalist Joshua Sang and former ODM chairman Henry Kosgey. The general charges also applied to President Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura, and former police commissioner Mohammed Hussein Ali.
The ‘Ocampo six’ were accused of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population, persecution, rape, and other inhumane acts during the poll chaos. ICC terminated the case against Ruto and Sang on April 5, 2016, about a year after President Kenyatta’s, which was dropped on March 13, 2015. In this case, 17 witnesses who had agreed to testify against the accused subsequently withdrew their cooperation with the Court.
Prosecution witnesses, in this case, were subjected to intimidation, social isolation and threats to prevent them from testifying.The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Gicheru after it was established that from at least April 2013, a criminal scheme was designed to systematically approach and corruptly influence witnesses of the Prosecutor through bribery and other methods of inducements in exchange for their withdrawal as prosecution witnesses and/or recantation of their prior statements to the Prosecutor.
The evidence indicated that the said scheme had been run in an organised manner and with a clear distribution of tasks. Gicheru was said to be a manager and coordinator of the scheme, meaning that he had finalised agreements with corrupted witnesses, organised the formalisation of their withdrawal and handled the payment. But the ICC stated that there was no evidence that Ruto or Sang directly interfered with the witnesses.
On 15th July this year, The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed charges against Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru who will now stand trial over alleged witness tampering. The ICC, in a statement posted on its website on recently, said Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Pre-Trial Chamber A reached the decision upon going through evidence and submissions presented by both the Prosecutor and the Defence. The court believes lawyer Gicheru committed offences against the administration of justice in order to undermine the Prosecution’s case against Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang.
Before Eldoret-based lawyer Paul Gicheru lurched into William Ruto’s case at the International Criminal Court, the former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, had pegged her hopes on several key prosecution witnesses. Then Mr Gicheru embarked on what the ICC calls the “witness corruption scheme”, and soon witnesses started withdrawing in quick succession. Some recanted their statements. Others disappeared. Now the ICC and its Pre-Trial Chamber have laid bare the case facing Mr Gicheru.
While court documents adversely mention Deputy President William Ruto as one of the people in the scheme of things, the ICC has not demanded Mr Ruto’s appearance. In 2015, the Prosecutor, frustrated with the Kenyan case, named Mr Gicheru as one of the men behind the witness interference plot. Gicheru fought back attempts to have him extradited to The Hague, with High Court judge Luka Kimaru quashing the warrant of arrest issued by Justice Ekaterina Trendafilova on both the lawyer and Mr Philip Kipkoech Bett.
But in November 2020 Mr Gicheru, 51, surprised many when he turned himself in to Dutch authorities to face accusations at the ICC which carry a prison sentence of up to five years. He is facing 16 counts.
In July 15, 2021 — the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, while confirming the charges against Mr Gicheru, said it “is convinced that between April 2013 and January 2014, Mr Gicheru offered various witnesses (millions of shillings) in cash instalments in exchange for withdrawing as Prosecution witnesses in the Ruto and Sang case”. The decision on the confirmation of the charges only serves to determine whether the Prosecutor’s case should proceed to trial.
The Pre-Trial Chamber also found that besides Mr Gicheru, there was Mr Silas Simatwo, from Amaco Insurance, a Mr Maiyo, Mr Bett, a Mr Yebei and Mr Walter Barasa, who acted together to undermine the prosecution’s case against Ruto and Sang.
The Prosecution, according to documents tabled at the Pre-Trial Chamber, plans to reveal the level of witness interference in the Ruto case and claims that the Deputy President was privy to what was happening.
While both Mr Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta had been charged at The Hague with crimes against humanity, the case against Mr Ruto was only vacated “without prejudice to their prosecution afresh in the future”.
The majority noted at the time that Mr Ruto had “profit(ed) from the interference (of witnesses) by the falling away of several key witnesses that the Chamber found to have been interfered with”. On March 13, 2015, Trial Chamber V(B) terminated the proceedings against Mr Kenyatta upon the Prosecution’s notice of withdrawal of charges due to insufficient evidence.
The Pre-Trail Chamber in the Gicheru says there was a well-planned scheme to induce the witnesses in the Ruto case that involved a first contact with a person who already knew the witness, a meeting with Mr Gicheru, making of an offer, and, finally, intimidation of the witness.
In order to prosecute its case, the prosecution divided the group of offenders into ‘managers’ and ‘intermediaries’ of the common plan. The Pre-Trial Chamber also found that “the (managers) also had a particular proximity with Mr Ruto and seemed to enjoy a special status in comparison with other members of the common plan organisation”.
Mr Simatwo is identified in the Chamber ruling as “in charge of the treasury” and that “several witnesses refer to them as the ‘core’ of the common plan organisation, or ‘the people’ working for Mr Ruto in order to corrupt witnesses”. Mr Simatwo is also identified as the head of the African Merchant Assurance Company, “an insurance company to which Mr Ruto was a shareholder”.
The Pre-Trial Chamber was told that Witness P-0341 was sent abroad to look for witnesses and was to be given a “car, another farm, a plot in town and Sh5 million”. The Chamber has been told that “Mr Ruto… was happy that P-0341 had agreed… not to attend ICC meetings anymore”. It was after this meeting that P-0341 was told that Mr Gicheru “would be the focal point now” and “would deal with everything”, according to court records.
It all seems to have started in April 2013, when the witness corruption scheme was laid. The first payment to P-0397, according to the Chamber, was for Sh1 million. In a heavily redacted ruling, the Chamber says that on or about April 20, 2013, the key witness was “visited” by a person –whose name has been redacted — and it was explained to him “that there was a group of persons working for Mr Ruto who were instructed to identify ICC witnesses and offer them money in exchange for their withdrawal as Prosecution witnesses.”
According to the Chamber records, the witnessed was introduced to Mr Gicheru on or about April 26, 2013 and he spoke to the witness “privately.” “(The Witness) told Mr Gicheru that he was an ICC witness, to which Mr Gicheru added that he had heard,” the chamber quotes filings by the Office of the Prosecutor in file KEN-OTP-0125-0434-R01.
“Mr Gicheru asked P-0397 to assist him by withdrawing as a witness against Mr Ruto. Mr Gicheru told P-0397 that Mr Ruto wanted P-0397 to identify other Prosecution witnesses and bring them to him (Mr Gicheru),” the file notes.
At first, according to the Chamber evidence, the witness requested for Sh10 million after Mr Gicheru asked him to “state his price in exchange for his withdrawal”. During the discussion, Mr Gicheru was joined by another person, whose name is also redacted, and Mr Gicheru explained to the witness that the person “must be consulted regarding the money to be paid to witnesses”.
Mr Gicheru is alleged to have explained to the witness “that Mr Ruto had given him and (the person whose name is redacted) the authority to pay witnesses”. After negotiations, the Chamber has heard, the witness was promised Sh5 million, “which Mr Gicheru promised would be paid in cash”. As they parted, Mr Gicheru gave the witness a business card.
He “in turn handed it to Prosecution investigators”, according to the Chamber. A day after Mr Gicheru privately spoke to the witness, he is said to have paid a cash instalment of Sh600,000. While the witness had been warned not to deposit the money into his bank account “to avoid detection by the ICC people”, the witness kept Sh100,000 and deposited Sh500,000. “He did so as he was afraid of getting robbed,” says the OTP filings quoted by the Chamber.
A week after this initial payment, Mr Gicheru, according to Chamber filings, introduced the witness to a lawyer who was to prepare an affidavit for the ICC. The chamber now says “(the witness) signed a letter giving (the lawyer) the power to act for him before the ICC on this matter. On the same day, (the witness) also signed an affidavit stating that he no longer intended to “testify against any accused persons” before the ICC, which the Chamber understands to include Mr Ruto and Mr Sang, and wished to withdraw his testimony against them”.
Some eight months after the affidavit was sent to the Prosecution by the lawyer, whose name is still redacted, Mr Gicheru is now said to have met the witness on December 7, 2013 and asked him if he was still in touch with the ICC. The Prosecutor alleged that Mr Gicheru “accused him of wanting, along with other individuals, to send Mr Ruto to jail. Mr Gicheru became aggressive; indicating that he believed (the witness) was trying to have him arrested by the ICC”. According to the filings, “the meeting ended when Mr Gicheru was calmed down by the second man and (the witness) left the meeting”. As a result of this exchange, (the witness) felt that he was in danger and could be killed.
When another witness, named P0516, disappeared on July 6, 2014 on the day he was scheduled to meet ICC officials regarding his in-court testimony, the Trial Chamber in the Ruto and Sang case was forced to issue a summons for his appearance before it declared him a hostile witness.
This Witness 2, identified as P0516 in court papers, told the ICC during Ruto’s case that the evidence that he had provided in his original witness statement was false, and that he had been told by a person, whose name is now redacted, on what to say. He also, under oath, testified that he did not know a lawyer named Paul Gicheru. But the prosecution said that it was Mr Gicheru who directed a person, whose name is redacted, to locate Witness 2. And since this person said he was not in good terms with this particular witness, they instructed (Prosecution Witness P-0397) to locate and bring him to the group on the promise that he would receive additional money.
According to the court filings, P-0397 told (Witness 2) that he could get money, such as Sh500,000, but that he had to meet and talk with Mr Gicheru first. (Witness 2) agreed to P-0397’s proposal to meet Mr Gicheru and they had a private discussion. It is now alleged that during the first or second meeting, Mr Gicheru offered Witness 2 some Sh800,000 in exchange for his withdrawal as a witness from the main case. “Mr Gicheru met with P-0516 approximately four or five times and paid him a total of at least Sh500,000,” the Chamber has been told.
After Witness 2 withdrew as a prosecution witness, the court filings state that “he stopped going to (name redacted) to receive money, despite being paid less than originally promised, because it was becoming dangerous”. P-0397 told prosecutors that he did not receive his part for introducing Witness 2 to Mr Gicheru. While confirming the case against Mr Gicheru, the Chamber says it finds the allegations regarding Mr Gicheru’s payments to (Witness 2) in exchange for withdrawing as a prosecution witness are corroborated by P-0397 as well as by other witnesses. It further says that it will assess the credibility of the witness as well as the evidence to draw its own conclusions. “He seemed not entirely forthright, specifically regarding the extent and purpose of his interactions with Mr Gicheru and his contact with P-0613 (who testified for Prosecution),” the Chamber observes, and says that “those elements support the reliance on portions of P-0516’s statements from (redacted) to the effect that he was promised and paid money by Mr Gicheru to withdraw as a Prosecution witness”.
While Gicheru’s defence dismissed these witnesses as “unreliable” by referring to the conclusions reached by the Chamber in the Ruto case which dismissed P-0613’s evidence as uncorroborated hearsay, the Chamber noted that this witness’s evidence stems from her phone conversations as well as text messages that she received from unidentified senders from April to September 2013. The Chamber, by agreeing to rely on her evidence in the Gicheru case, said the judges’ findings in the Ruto case on this witness’s evidence “related to the sufficiency of her knowledge” and that the charges now brought by the prosecutor in this case are different. “The Chamber will assess the credibility of P-0613 as well as her evidence independently and will draw its own conclusions,” the Judges have ruled. “The Chamber further finds that P-0613 also provides direct evidence of attempts by certain individuals to corruptly influence her decision to testify as a Prosecution witness, and that parts of her accounts are corroborated by other evidence.” And on her general evidence, the Chamber said it had found that this witness’s evidence fits the overall pattern that emerges from the evidence regarding how individuals were approached and in turn approached other potential prosecution witnesses to arrange meetings with individuals such as Mr Gicheru in order to offer the prosecution witnesses or potential witnesses money in exchange for their withdrawal and recantation of prior statements given to the Prosecution.
On her credibility, the Judges said that Gicheru’s defence “does not put forward any persuasive factors that would affect the reliability of her statements. “P-0613’s statements are internally consistent, free of contradictions and, as already mentioned, they are partially corroborated by other evidence,” they found. “Accordingly, the Chamber finds P-0613 credible and her statements reliable.”
It also emerged that after another witness, P-0604, recanted his evidence at The Hague, after what the prosecutor terms as “improper interference”, he later resumed his contacts with the Prosecution and will now be used in the Gicheru case. The Chamber formed the view that this witness “can be, in part, relied upon in the case at hand, including from his statement of 2013”. According to the Chamber, this witness was introduced to Mr Gicheru and asked to withdraw his statement in exchange for money and was coached on what to say in court by Mr Gicheru and another lawyer.
The ICC judges who have listened to the Gicheru confirmation case say they have now formed the view that this witness, together with two others and “some anonymous actors working individually or in pairs and even competing against each other” attempted to convince witness P-0613 to withdraw as a prosecution witness. Witness P0613 learnt about the witness corruption scheme from other witnesses, according to the Chamber. From the court records, this witness was approached by P-0495 and asked to accept a cash offer. “P-0495 explained that ‘they’ were interested in suspending the main case because it was taking too long and their objective was to stop it. He told P-0613 that she would be provided with government protection so that she could defect and be protected from others too,” the Chamber noted in its ruling. While this witness never met Mr Gicheru, the Chamber says it is “convinced that Mr Gicheru was involved in attempts to convince P-0613 to withdraw as a prosecution witness in exchange for financial incentives and other advantages.” Mr Gicheru, according to the Chamber, met with P-0800 on July 21, 2013 and offered him money “in locating and corrupting other witnesses, notably P-0613”.
The Chamber identified Mr Bett as the person who took P-0800 to a meeting with Mr Gicheru in Nairobi. During the meeting, Mr Gicheru offered to give P-0800 between Sh1.5 million to Sh2 million. From the interaction, P-0800 got the impression that the money was offered in exchange for being loyal to the Gicheru team and agreeing with what they were going to tell him, the court notes. “During the same meeting, P-0800 was immediately incorporated into plans to interfere with other witnesses. Mr Gicheru asked P-0800 to contact P-0495 and facilitate a meeting between the latter and Mr Gicheru. P-0800 was given travel money by Mr Gicheru to go… and meet with P-0495,” says the court. Gicheru would later take P-0800 to a law firm where he signed an affidavit. The witness told the prosecutors that he “signed the last page of the affidavit without ever reading the entire document” and that he “feared negative consequences if he didn’t”. Initially, the Chamber had noted, this witness had broken contacts with the ICC but in 2014 he resumed the cooperation and testified in November 2014. Mr Gicheru has also been mentioned by P-0536, who is described by the Chamber as “always straightforward in her statements and interactions with the prosecution”. The witness, now adopted as credible, had been promised Sh1.4 million and in one conversation the amount was increased to Sh1.6 million. An unidentified person told her that the money would be paid in cash and “meant to start a new life”. Mr Gicheru is also said to have approached P-0341 and inquired if he was an ICC witness.
In May 2013, Mr Gicheru is said to have paid this witness Sh500,000 and asked him not to deposit the money into a bank. But the witness opened a bank account and deposited Sh300,000 and spent the balance. After that, he was taken to a lawyer and he signed an affidavit of withdrawal from the entire ICC process. He was asked to bring another unnamed witness, make a public statement to the press about his withdrawal and he would be paid Sh5 million. It is also claimed that Mr Ruto “complained many times to Mr Gicheru” about an issue that has been redacted. The witness continued to meet “almost every day” with Mr Gicheru and between May 9 and July 19, 2013 he signed an affidavit stating that he had no evidence against Mr Ruto and that he was withdrawing from the case.
The ICC noted that a few days later, Mr Gicheru told P-0341 that Mr Ruto was very happy with the affidavit and that P-0341 should receive Sh5 million for that. On that day, however, Mr Gicheru gave him a smaller amount, but superior to Sh20,000. The court was told that Mr Gicheru wanted the man to be Mr Ruto’s witness. Gicheru continued to spend money on this witness, according to court records, with most of it banked into the witness’ account. On two occasions, according to the Chamber, Mr Gicheru summoned P-0341 because he was furious that P-0341 had attended a PEV victims meeting and had met with (redacted). Mr Gicheru accused him of interacting with white people who were spies for the ICC. In total, this witness is reported to had received Sh2 million from Mr Gicheru. It was this witness who brought a former PNU supporter to Mr Gicheru who explained that they were “giving witnesses money to stop assisting the ICC, and that they needed to reach everyone involved in this case since ‘the boss’, who P-0274 understood to be Mr Ruto, ‘wanted no stone left unturned”. “Mr Gicheru also asked P-0274 to give him the names of other OTP witnesses. Mr Gicheru gave P-0274 a phone number from which he said he would call P-0274 in the future. Mr Gicheru also gave him some money to reimburse him for transport back home. Feeling ‘very sceptical about all this’, P-0274 reported what had happened to an ICC staff member,” the ICC prosecutor told the court.
The Chamber was told that P-0274 received a call from the number and was to meet Mr Gicheru. Scared, the witness switched off his phone. “When he switched his phone back on, he saw that he had received a new threat from another telephone number. After that, he never dealt with Mr Gicheru again,” says the prosecution. Later, P-0274 was told by an unnamed person that “Mr Ruto wanted to meet him in person.” The Pre-Trial Chamber has now identified Mr Gicheru as a co-perpetrator and has also retained the charges of direct perpetration as requested by the Prosecution. On the others who are yet to surrender to The Hague, the Chamber said that “by the very nature of their tasks (directly bribing witnesses), it cannot be said that they were mere executors who did not know what the common plan was about. On the contrary, by the very nature of their action and awareness of the consequences of the implementation of the common plan, they became participants and members of the common plan organisation.
Head of State Immunity.
The provision in Article 27(2) of the ICC Statute that “Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person” , according to the summary of the judgment.
Literally Head-of-state immunity is a doctrine of customary international law — the doctrine maintains that a head of state is immune from the jurisdiction of a foreign state’s courts, at least as to authorized official acts taken while the ruler is in power.
The ICC’s success has been questioned by many and the Al-Bashir situation placed a major obstacle in ICC’s jurisprudence regarding immunity to heads of state. Article 27 of the Rome Statute states that no position of authority of an individual, shall bar the Court from exercising jurisdiction.
However, Article 98 of the Rome Statute confers that the Court may not proceed with a request for surrender, if this would require the requested state to act inconsistently with international law obligations pertaining to immunity of officials in relation to a third state. Article 98 is interpreted such that it applies to non-state parties since the members have not ratified the Rome Statute and thus are not bound by the obligations created by Article 27.
Immunity to heads of state is well recognized in international customary law. Putting the concerns into context, Sudan is not a party to the ICC. Bashir, at the time, travelled to many countries within the African Union – wherein Statesrefused to extradite him to the ICC, due to the immunity his position confers on him. Since Sudan’s referral to the ICC is made by the UNSC, not only does Article 27 apply but also Article 98 (1) which would consequently, create serious doubts on the prohibition of head of state immunity for Al Bashir.
Due to the lack of clarity of the situation, the African Union (AU) have been looking at the option of an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the matter. Some countries of the AU have even threatened to withdraw from the ICC which makes the matter extremely complicated.
In the case of then Sudan Head of State Omar Al bashir, where ICC ordered his arrest and whereby the 122 member states were to act on behalf of ICC to aid in the arrest of the then Sitting Head of State should he visit any of the member state. Omar however managed to visit 10 member states who declined to arrest him on the ground of International Customary laws.
There haven’t been a clear jurisdiction as to if ICC can arrest and prosecute a non-member sitting Head of state should need be and with the help of the member states should the wanted head of state enter any of the member state territory.There have been divided legal opinion whether to adhere to ICC’s non-immunity law or International Customary Law that bars ICC’s directive.
At some point African Union through UN- General assembly on behalf of member state set to challenge ICC’s Appeal chamber ruling on ‘No- immunity’ against sitting head-of-states to International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine whether to uphold Customary law for all or ‘No-immunity’ ICC’s law. African Union prohibits prosecution or conviction of a sitting Head-of-state.
Since the ICC is an international organization, not a State, the consistency of its actions with customary international law can only be determined by the reactions of States. As per the current status quo- some member states are not upto the task to act on ICC’s request to make such arrest should there need be. Should the decision be made clear by ICJ, ICC member states will have no option but to adhere. This is a case yet to be determined.
With DP Ruto as head-of-state and should Lawyer Gicheru admission expose rekindle Ruto’s ICC case, he’ll be enjoying the immunity unlike if he’ll be out of the office.
With General elections just few months away and with 9.5 percent probability of his ICC case being rekindled, Ruto, the favorite candidate likely to win Kenya’s Presidential election not on Integrity ground but symphathy and smartness in the political umbrella will likely be out and about to use every available resources to clinch the seat. And should he clinch the seat, he’ll use every available resources at his disposal like every other African Head-of-State to cling into power for another 5 years. Enough time to meddle African Union business to influence ICJ and ICC whose current prosecutor Karim Khan was his former lawyer in the same court —or through his government push for withdrawal of Kenya from ICC like his Uganda counterpart Dictator Yoweri Museveni whom they’ve deliberately tightened their friendship in recent times and DP Ruto has become a frequent visitor to the Uganda’s head of state — should he succeed in Kenya’s election, they’ll flock together to spearhead their (state) withdrawal from ICC so as to freely rule by the bullet without a watchdog.
DP Ruto with Museveni during construction foundation launch of Deputy President William Ruto’s Institute of African and Leadership Studies at the Makerere University.
He knows he won’t have these options possible out of Government since he’s standing on a loose rope between freedom and prison. His conviction if the ICC case is re-opened and found guilty as charged — shall be Justice served to the 2007/08 PEV victims while his win for Presidency will be an escape goat from prosecution, conviction and shall solidify his melting political butter.
ABBAS is a Nigerian national who previously resided in the United Arab Emirates (the “U.A.E.”). ABBAS’ social media accounts—on which he was known by the moniker “Ray Hushpuppi” or variations of that name—frequently showed him in designer clothes, wearing expensive watches, and posing in or with luxury cars and charter jets.
Online articles in Nigeria suggested for several years that ABBAS was involved in fraud,and, in fact, multiple articles identified him as one of the most prolific Nigerian-origin fraudsters in the world.
The FBI’s Investigation confirmed that ABBAS’ opulent lifestyle was financed through crime, and that he was one of the leaders of a transnational network committing computer crime and fraudulent schemes (including BEC schemes), and money laundering from those offenses, targeting victims around the world.
ABBAS was charged by Complaint and then Information, in Case. No. 2:20-CR-00322-ODW, for conspiring in a cyber-heist from a bank in Malta and several BEC schemes, and money laundering relating to those schemes . In addition to that charged conduct, messages obtained from ABBAS’ phone and online accounts pursuant to federal search warrants, combined with bank records, other records, and information from victims, indicate that ABBAS and the others participated in a scheme to defraud a person (the “Victim Businessperson”) who was seeking a lender to invest $15 million in a project to build an international school in Qatar (the “Qatari Victim Company”). The scheme defrauded the Victim Businessperson of more than $1.1 million.
A Kenyan by the name ABDULRAHMAN JUMA who is believed to be still living at large in Africa conspired with Hashpuppi whose Real name is ABBAS. JUMA and ABBAS interacted directly with the Victim Businessperson; JUMA claimed to own a company in Kenya that would provide the loan, while ABBAS pretended to be “Malik,” a banker at Wells Fargo in the United States, who was purportedly facilitating the loan payment. Another co-conspirator CHIBUZO was involved in creating a fraudulent website and automated phone line that would convince the Victim Businessperson that the $15 million loan had been secured.
In the course of the scheme, the Victim Businessperson made multiple payments purportedly for taxes and other fees, which JUMA and ABBAS told the Victim Businessperson were necessary to secure the loan.
At the time ABBAS joined the conspiracy, JUMA had already defrauded the Victim Businessperson of approximately $314,442.78 in early December 2019. After ABBAS joined the conspiracy that month, JUMA and ABBAS received and laundered additional funds in a variety of ways with the assistance of other coconspirators. AGBABIAKA and FASHOLA were among the coconspirators who assisted ABBAS in receiving and laundering funds.
Among those payments, ABBAS convinced the Victim Businessperson to make wire transfers of $230,000 to a Wells Fargo bank account of a luxury watch-seller and $100,000 to a Capital One bank account of AGBABIAKA in late December 2019. ABBAS used the wire transfer of $230,000 to purchase a luxury Richard Mille RM11-03 watch.
ABBAS arranged for the watch seller in Florida (the “Florida Watch Seller”) to ship the watch to the New York metropolitan area, where AGBABIAKA and FASHOLA picked it up and ultimately delivered it to a coconspirator, who was a relative of FASHOLA. ABBAS then directed that person to transport the watch on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”) in New York to the U.A.E., where that person hand-delivered the watch to ABBAS on about January 4, 2020. ABBAS posted a photograph of himself on Instagram wearing the watch, with the hashtag “#Rm1103,” on January 13, 2020. As to the $100,000 wire transfer to AGBABIAKA, ABBAS directed AGBABIAKA to withdraw the funds and convert a portion of them— minus $8,000 for AGBABIAKA, which was her cut—to Nigerian Naira, the currency of Nigeria, which she then provided to coconspirators who would deliver the funds to ABBAS.
AGBABIAKA also laundered funds at ABBAS’ request by sending cashier’s checks totaling $50,000 to a coconspirator who would use the funds to fraudulently obtain St. Christopher and Nevis (“St. Kitts”) citizenship and a passport for ABBAS. ABBAS received the passport in February 2020.
Between approximately January 8, 2020 and February 4, 2020, JUMA and ABBAS each corresponded with the Victim Businessperson, attempting to fraudulently induce the Victim Businessperson to pay $575,000 in purported “taxes” to release the $15 million loan that the Victim Businessperson was expecting. Between February 5 and 7, 2020, the Victim Businessperson wire transferred $299,983.58 to bank accounts under JUMA’s control.
CHIBUZO’s messages to ABBAS during that time show that he was unhappy with the amount that, and/or speed with which, ABBAS was paying him, so he contacted the Victim Businessperson directly. CHIBUZO told the Victim Businessperson that JUMA and ABBAS were “fake,” in an attempt to convince the Victim Businessperson to stop making fraudulent payments to ABBAS and JUMA, and to make fraudulent payments to him instead. When JUMA and ABBAS learned of CHIBUZO’s interference, ABBAS arranged to have KYARI—a highly decorated Deputy Commissioner of the Nigeria Police Force—arrest CHIBUZO for interfering with the fraud scheme. ABBAS specifically told KYARI that CHIBUZO contacted “the job” behind ABBAS’ back to “divert the job for himself.” ABBAS asked KYARI to have the police administer the “serious beating of his life” and arranged with KYARI to pay to keep CHIBUZO imprisoned for at least a month, so that the fraud scheme could be successfully executed, and the money could be obtained.
After KYARI arrested CHIBUZO, he sent ABBAS photographs of CHIBUZO in custody and later told ABBAS that he would not allow CHIBUZO’s girlfriend to pay money to get CHIBUZO out of custody as he would have done for a “normal arrest.” Following CHIBUZO’s arrest, JUMA and ABBAS convinced the Victim Businessperson to make the payments of $299,983.58 described above. In mid-February 2020, the Victim Businessperson came to believe that JUMA had defrauded him/her.
ABBAS—still pretending to be “Malik,” a Wells Fargo banker—purported to sympathize with the Victim Businessperson and then fraudulently induced the Victim Businessperson to make additional wire transfers of $100,000 to AGBABIAKA and $80,000 to a different coconspirator, which were laundered through a variety of means. At the same time, ABBAS led JUMA to believe that he had not received any additional payments from the Victim Businessperson.
JUMA used the phone number +2547233377884 to communicate with ABBAS, which was saved by ABBAS in his contacts as “Abdul Kenya Akwete.” JUMA also used his true name—ABDULRAHMAN JUMA—to communicate with the Victim Businessperson and the “Financial Advisor” of the Victim Businessperson. According to the Victim Businessperson and the Financial Advisor (as discussed below in paragraph 47), JUMA provided his business card to the Victim Businessperson and the Financial Advisor during an in-person meeting in Kenya. The business card listed his name as ABDULRAHMAN JUMA and stated that he was the “Chairman” of Westload Financial Solutions. The business card also listed his phone number as +254723337788.
Messages that JUMA exchanged with ABBAS corroborated JUMA’s identity. On December 10, 2019, JUMA, using the phone number +254723337788, sent a photograph of a medical document to ABBAS. The document listed the patient’s name as “ABDULRAHMAN JUMA,” and JUMA told ABBAS that he was getting a checkup for an “itchy throat.”
Records from Google, obtained on November 2, 2020, indicated that the phone number +254723337788 was listed in subscriber records of the email address [email protected], which used the name “ABDULRAHMAN JUMA.”
Records from financial service companies likewise indicate that JUMA used the phone number +254723337788:
a) Western Union records indicate that a person using the phone number +254723337788 listed the name “Abdulrahman Imraad Juma,”5 and a date of birth in March of 1993, when making payments through the service.
b) MoneyGram records indicate that “ABDULRAHMAN IMRAAN JUMA”—with the same birthdate in March of 1993, phone number 723337788 (+254723337788 without the Kenya country code “+254”), and a Kenyan passport with the passport number ending in 1127—received a payment through the service on May 28, 2017.
Review of ABBAS’ phone revealed that he and JUMA used a U.A.E.- based messaging platform called ToTok, on which JUMA was listed as the username “Wfs.” The evidence indicating that JUMA used the username “Wfs” includes the following: ABBAS and “Wfs” discussed the scheme to defraud the Qatari Victim Company in detail, including passing wire details and victim identifying information, while engaging in simultaneous conversations over WhatsApp, as well.
For example, in December 2019, ABBAS and “Wfs” used ToTok to discuss how to defraud the Qatari Victim Company, including passing wire confirmation details and a photograph of the passport of the Victim Businessperson. At approximately the same time, ABBAS and JUMA used WhatsApp to share messages that they sent to and received from the Victim Businessperson, and further discussed how to split the proceeds of the fraud they obtained from the Victim Businessperson.
Further corroborating that “Wfs” was JUMA, “Wfs” stated on several occasions that he was located in Kenya, and was associated with the Kenyan law firm “Okatch & Partners,” which was one of the companies that received funds sent by the Qatari Victim Company. Moreover, there were a number of instances in which JUMA and “Wfs” sent the same or similar information to ABBAS on both WhatsApp and ToTok, respectively, in a short timeframe. For example, on January 3, 2020, JUMA forwarded a message to ABBAS through WhatsApp and, in the same minute, “Wfs” sent the same message to ABBAS using ToTok. Moreover, on January 6, 2020, “Wfs” sent a long message over ToTok to ABBAS discussing how he had not received any money from ABBAS. Within approximately 20 minutes, JUMA sent the same long message to ABBAS over WhatsApp.
Initiation of Fraud Scheme and Initial Fraudulent Payments of $314,442.78 to JUMA.
The Victim Businessperson planned to build an international school (the Qatari Victim Company) in Qatar, and therefore hired the Financial Advisor to find a lender who could invest $15 million in the project. Around October 1, 2019, the Financial Advisor began reaching out to business contacts and conducted searches online to secure an investor to provide the $15 million loan for his client. As a result of the online search, the Financial Advisor came into contact with Coconspirator 1 in the case who claimed to live and work in the Philippines. Coconspirator 1 referred the Financial Advisor to a company in Kenya—Westload Financial Solutions Limited (“Westload”)—to facilitate the loan. On November 12, 2019, the Financial Advisor and the Victim Businessperson travelled to Kenya to meet in person with JUMA and another person. As noted in paragraph 17, JUMA’s business card identified him as the “Chairman” of Westload, while the business card of the other person stated he was the “Funding Officer.”
During this meeting, the Victim Businessperson signed a contract with Westload. The contract stated that the Victim Businessperson was responsible for paying a “consultancy fee” of $225,000 through the law firm Okatch & Partners (“Okatch”), located in Kenya. The payment was to be made in two installments—an initial payment of $157,500 and a second payment for $67,500. Westload also provided two initial invoices; one for $157,500 for the first installment and another for $6,900, for purported legal and initial engagement fees.
Concurrently, on about November 12, 2019, the Victim Businessperson began communicating with JUMA over WhatsApp.On around November 13 and 14, 2019, the Victim Businessperson wired approximately $164,450 to Okatch in four separate transactions.
On about December 1, 2019, JUMA provided the Victim Businessperson a wire transfer confirmation—which was forged and fraudulent— showing a transfer of $15 million from a Barclays Bank PLC account in the United Kingdom to the Qatar National Bank (“QNB”) account of the Qatari Victim
Company, dated November 28, 2019. 19 (per conversation with affiant 2/12/2021)
On about December 4, 2020, the Victim Businessperson learned from QNB that it had not received a payment from Barclays for the Qatari Victim Company. Shortly thereafter, on about December 5, 2019, JUMA told the Victim Businessperson that another “payment of release order” was needed to secure the loan, and requested an additional payment of $150,000.
On around December 6 and 7, 2019, the Victim Businessperson wired approximately USD $150,000 to Okatch in four transactions.
JUMA worked closely with ABBAS to defraud the Victim Businessperson, interacting directly with the Victim Businessperson and directing the Victim Businessperson to make payments to bank accounts in the United States and Kenya. In particular, JUMA received initial payments from the Victim Businessperson and then involved ABBAS in the fraud scheme. JUMA received and laundered the money that the Victim Businessperson sent to the Okatch bank account in Kenya.
Hashpuppi pleaded guilty to all the aforementioned findings into the fraud involved.
Criminsls have gotten smarter and to launder their money, they use fraudulent law firms who agree to play by their cards.
The most recent case that is on the public is that of Gold Scammer Jared Otieno.
He used Nairobi Lawyer, Tom Okundi Ngoe(Ayieko) of Okundi & Company Advocates to scam Sh300M.
According to documents seen, Otieno to hide his traces, wasn’t to be involved directly in this fake gold deal coined as a loan transaction and instead an alleged loan from the said Lao Republic national Southorn Chanthavong was drawn to one Rose Adhiambo Omamo in the greater scheme drawn by the lawyer.
The first loan of Ksh100 million was advanced by Sounthorn Chanthavong, on behalf of Simuong Group on February 8, 2019 to Ms Adhiambo. Acknowledgement notes in our possession show that the loan was released in cash, for unstated reasons.
In the second instance, on February 28, 2019, Ms Adhiambo received Ksh200 million from the same ‘lender’. Suspiciously, the money was also released in cash and involved the same parties.
According to a letter dated February 26 from Chanthavong, it dictated that the lawyer release the amount (Ksh200 million) to Ms Adhiambo “in cash, immediately”.
Amazingly, the amount was to be repaid in one month at an interest rate of five percent per month, meaning she would have had to repay approximately Ksh210 million. The loan agreement documents in our possession show that she got the loan since she was an “established property developer.”
By the time the foreigners were realizing that there was no gold, they had already been washed out in the heist with money gone through the law firm.
However, when the scammers were arraigned in court over the theft, The two accounts of Okundi & Company Advocates one at Stanbic Bank and another at Standard Chartered, hold $3 million (about Sh300 million), on behalf of Jared Kiasa Otieno and Chris Philip Okeyo Obure were frozen in the probe.
Chris Obure a known scammer and client of the same law firm working with the scammers is a prime suspect in the murder casemurder case of Kevin Omwenga who was shot dead by Obure’s bodyguard in what is suspected to have been a deal gone bad. Omwenga was also in the scamming dealings with Chris.
While lawyers like Okundi don’t have a problem laundering money for seasoned criminals, some appear to have morals in them.
Donald Kipkorir says that he was nearly dragged into the Hushpuppi’s scandal after being approached by Abdulrahman to help in laundering money.
Sometimes back, Abulrahman aka Abdul asked my friend Fauz Khalid in Mombasa to introduce him to me. Abdul came to see me & wanted me to keep money from Hushpuppi. I told him I only deal with corporate clients .. If I loved money or was corrupt , I would’ve been indicted in US!
— Donald B Kipkorir (@DonaldBKipkorir) July 30, 2021
In Kenya, rogue law firms get away with laundering criminals money because of weak institutions, in the US it’s no joke, that’s why lawyers like Okundi thrive in the dark world.
When spirits maker Diageo faced slowing growth in developed economies, it started expanding in emerging markets.
By 2004, however, many of these mature markets were becoming saturated. Emerging markets, on the other hand, were growing quickly, and the company saw an opportunity in them. Africa provided an attractive target.
Its population had been growing at more than two per cent per year, and it had an average age of 19.7 years. The middle class was well over 250 million people in 2000, and the number was increasing rapidly. But the continent also presented its fair share of challenges.
Many existing products were too expensive for the African middle class. Others, developed for western markets, did not address the specific needs of the African population. The challenge for Diageo was to produce commercial alcoholic beverages that profitably met local needs. To achieve its targeted growth, the company needed to innovate across its entire value network.
New products, manufacturing setups and distribution systems, tailored to the specific commercial needs and opportunities of the region, would have to be created. Diageo first had to decide whom it would serve to achieve that growth.
The company was producing and selling a beer called Tusker in Kenya at the time through an equal partnership with a local company, East Africa Breweries Ltd (EABL). Tusker and its rivals were sold at prices well out of the reach of most Kenyans.
This left a strategic segment underserved: those who drank but for whom branded beer was too expensive. The company created a new product – a beer called Senator Keg – to tap the approximately 60 per cent of consumers who drank only locally brewed alcohol which they considered illegal.
Diageo engineered its sourcing and manufacturing operations to significantly reduce the cost of producing Senator Keg beer. With most beers being produced from two primary ingredients – barley and hops – which are combined with yeast and water to induce fermentation. The company chose to source barley from local growers and to produce the beer at its subsidiary, EABL.
This took advantage of low labour costs in Africa while minimising transportation and other expenses associated with sourcing from afar. This drastically reduced the beer’s production cost. The pioneering process of brewing a lager from only barley was the world’s first, and recognised internationally.
Market research done in 2003 by Diageo showed the optimal pricing for Senator Keg needed to be between 20 and 30 Kenyan shillings a glass (300 ml). When finally introduced, at 15 to 20 shillings a glass Senator cost a fifth the price of Diageo’s mainstream beer, Tusker, and was only slightly more expensive than locally brewed ‘illegal’ alcohol.
By pricing Senator Keg at this level, Diageo offered consumers a product that was safe, and yet competitive with homemade spirits. Diageo made other significant efforts to reduce the price. It put forward a proposal to the Kenyan government to reduce taxes on Senator Keg to decrease its price and attract budget drinkers away from illicit brews. The government reduced excise duty on Senator Keg.
Senator Keg has proved an enormous unlawful monopoly in the market. Since its launch, the brand has gained over 50 per cent of the Kenyan beer market, and EABL dominates the country with a 97 per cent share. More broadly, emerging markets now contribute nearly 50 per cent of Diageo’s net sales up from 20 per cent in 2005.
Africa alone contributes 20 per cent of Diageo’s revenue. The company expects emerging markets to make up almost three quarters of its net sales by next few years.
Unfortunately, In June this year – Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) re-introduced their third national consumer rewards promotions with an aim in ‘fighting illicit brews’ – promotion geared at rewarding loyal Senator beer consumers. According to the initiators, the campaign aim to provide a safe, ultra-low-cost beer to compete with illegal supplies which could play a crucial role in both resolving alcohol-related health problems and in achieving the targeted growth for Diageo.
KBL Managing Director John Musunga said the Shikisha Form na Senator Ushinde, embodies the Senator customers’ pursuit of better lives and seeks to celebrate and recognize their unbridled loyalty and contribution in establishing the Senator brand as the most successful value beer brand in Kenya.
To participate, consumers are required to purchase two 500ml mugs (either Senator Lager or Dark Extra) to get issued with a scratch card. They are then required to SMS a unique valid code found under the scratch panel to a 5-digit short code to get an entry into the competition. One valid code gives one entry.
So, the strategy is, the more mugs you purchase, the more scratch cards, the more entry you record and ‘the higher your chances of winning.”
Unaware and unsuspecting customers hop in for the sweet deal without blinking an eye not knowing that every SMS you send of the code to the 5-digit code, you’re charged 10/- as that isn’t included in requirements, terms and conditions atleast for awareness.
So, if you buy more mugs- it’s to their advantage, you get more scratch cards – it’s to their advantage as you’ll be charged more in the mobile network transaction fee unaware.
And with cheap Keg beers they’re out to promote, targeting the vulnarable less fortunate families – low income groups who more often believe in lottery fallacy as the only way to get rich.
We must be clear that the target group is the low- income consumers who can only afford the cheap Keg beer and who believes in lottery as the only way to richness. This targeted group is a jobless group, and drinking is their business.
Lets takes an example of Kiambu county, In a small size bar or pub, 10 friends in a day takes 4 mugs each, thats 2000/- in a day times 7 days a week for the addicts, thats 14,000/- times over 1000 such like pubs in one county – that’s 14,000,000 in a week times 40 active counties in the country out of the 47 counties thats roughly over 500,000,000 every week then add the 10/- scratch card charges for every 2 mugs purchased for this group every time the take two mugs for the next three months. The campaign is being run for 3 months before these prizes are given out. The billions of money being exploited in this scheme is almost the country’s annual budget.
The promotion feature an array of prizes, with the grand prize being Ksh. 10 million. Additionally, 5 loyal customers stand a chance to win Ksh. 2 million each, with Ksh. 1 million set aside to improve their community as well as themselves. Additionally, there will be airtime worth Ksh. 56 million, home shopping worth Ksh. 12 million and home makeovers worth Ksh. 2.4 million.
The terms and conditions of buying more mugs to stand higher chances of winning, condition of drinking minimum of two mugs is harmful to health, its addictive method and they know it. These conditions encourages excessive alchohol consumption and binge drinking (Binge drinking is, during a single occasion, four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men) on the side of the consumer with an aim to get the consumer buy more, then also charge them more when sending the SMS codes.
In the United States, one “standard” drink (or one alcoholic drink equivalent) contains roughly 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is found in: 12 ounces of regular beer, which is usually about 5% alcohol. 5 ounces of wine, which is typically about 12% alcohol. 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which is about 40% alcohol.
Senator Dark Extra, which was launched early this year and is retailing in 2,000 outlets, has an alcohol content at 7.5 per cent compared to Senator Keg’s 5.8 per cent. Tusker is 5% -5.5%.
The more the alcohol content, the more the harmful risks.
With this underway exploitative promotion, its possible that end of year Per capita alcohol consumption in Africa statistics will record Kenya among the top alcohol consumers in Africa, Ministry of Health will record higher cases of Diabetes cases, increased cases of Liver and Kidney failures.
Cheap is Expensive and This exploitation is underway with the knowledge of the authorities from Communication Authority, Telco companies: Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom – Consumers Federation of Kenya (CoFeK), Legislators in parliament. All in payslip to keep pin-drop silence on the scheme.
A cyber threat group – Forkbombo that caused chaos in the financial sector due to coordinated heists was taken down in Kigali late 2019.
This group flourished for several years after the main Cyber Cartel was taken down in 2017, with the third in command assuming Operational Command, after he unsuccessfully was unable to attain a Political statue during 2017 nominations, thus quickly reverting to crime, and organizing this threat group with use of Cut-Outs across its organized crime operations, such that even the Money Mules didn’t know each other and could not have access to the hackers’ deployed to run target penetrations.
There have been several other cases of hacking in the past, with estimates of over 2 billion shillings being lost through black hat operations annually. Some investigations have led to arrests though no convictions have been made so far.
In most cases, the suspects find their way out through cash bails and out of court settlements. The hackers formed a syndicate, one which has continued to cause havoc. As a team, they have managed to stay a step ahead, beating the security agencies and cyber forensic specialists. Banks have kept the attacks secret on purpose.
Forkbombo was given this name because during 2016 to 2017, they used [email protected] to receive keylogger data after infecting a machine with the keylogger variant that they wrote in-house. Known to few, is that the mastermind behind the the group was actually a DCI officer who colluded with hackers group he was assigned to investigate and put on record. He decided to preach water and drink wine.
In the emergence of tremendous cyber security hitch – hacking incidences in Kenya in 2010, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) received many reports of companies and individuals who had lost money or crucial information to hackers.in the financial sphere.
The reports were becoming overwhelming to DCI, which had few experts in the field of cyber crime technology to resolve the cases.However, one officer was exceptional, Mr Calvin Otieno Ogalo. He, among other officers, was tasked to investigate and resolve the cases as soon as possible to minimize the backlog and serve justice to the victims and most importantly track and arrest the hackers.
According to reports, Mr Ogalo was so good that by 2012 he had concluded almost all his investigations and had names of the best cybercriminals in the country. However, instead of bringing them to book as was required of him, he instead organised them into a lethal cybercrime gang that would hack institutions and individuals seamlessly, stealing either money or crucial information.
He was discovered later, which led to his silence and unceremonious exit from the DCI as a crimebuster in 2013. Nothing much about his exit or the gang he had formed was reported then – kept as a secret to control public outrage.
In his gang that later would be named Forkbombo was Mr Alex Mutungi Mutuku, one of the best hackers in the country. Others included Reuben Kirogothi Mwangi, Eric Dickson Njagi, Godfrey Gachiri, Erickson Macharia Kinyua and Stanley Kimeu Mutua.
Mr Ogalo roped in the services of insiders in targeted institutions and on top of it former Kenya Revenue Authority officers Edward Kiprop Langat, David Wambugu, Albert Komen and James Mwaniki. Also in the gang were Henry Achoka, Duncan Bokela and Martin Murathe.
Investigations by cybersecurity group OnNet Africa found an email associated with the hackers in almost every hacking incidence, [email protected].
One of the group’s major hits was in 2013 when they infiltrated the Judiciary’s system and requested National Treasury to approve Ksh80 million payment to several fictitious companies. The payments would be flagged by CFC Bank (now Stanbic) which called Judiciary’s chief of finance Mr Benedict Omollo, but the money was already gone. Later, Mr Achoka, Mr Bokela, Mr Mwangi and Mr Murathe of the Forkbombo group would be arrested and convicted seven years later, in January 2020.
One of the masterminds of the heist, Mr Mwangi, is currently serving a jail term in Rwanda alongside seven other Kenyans after attempting to Equity Bank in Kigali.
The Judiciary heist was neither the first nor the last, as the group would target other institutions, sometimes succeeding and other times being arrested. To them, being arrested was part of their job and they would pay cash bail and get back to work. For instance, in 2014, Mr Mutuku and Mr Stanley Kimeu Mutua were arrested after hacking into NIC Bank and stealing crucial information and Ksh2.88 million. In this incident, they were demanding a total of 200 bitcoins (equivalent to Ksh6.2 million then) in exchange for the information. The duo were released on Ksh700,000 cash bail.
In three months’ time, Mr Mutuku was accused of infiltrating the Safaricom system and stealing airtime worth Ksh3.6 million. Most probably he found a loophole in the Safaricom system, and a month later, it is alleged that Mutuku tricked the system to recharge his phone number with Ksh20,000 airtime.
Forkbombo is believed to have stolen at least Ksh400 million between 2013 and 2017. though the amount could be higher than that. It is believed that Forkbombo hacked and stole at least Ksh50 million from the Kenya Police Sacco in 2017.
The Kenya Police Sacco heist was so easy for them, and now they decided to loot KRA, through the help of two American nationals, Larry Peckham II and Denise Huitron, who were in constant communication with Mr Ogalo and even visited the country at one time.
In the heist where the taxman is said to have lost at least Ksh3.9 billion, Mr Edward Kiprop Langat (former KRA employee) is said to have been used to plant a laptop in the KRA servers. Other suspects of the heist are Mr Mutuku, Mr Langat, Mr Wambugu, Lucy Katilo Wamwandu, Kenneth Opege Riaga, James Mwaniki, Gilbert Kiptala Kipkechem and Joseph Kirai Mwangi.
Forkbombo, through Mr Mwangi recruited more suspected hackers including Dedan Muchoki Muriuki, Samuel Wachira Nyuguto, Damaris Njeri Kamau and Steve Maina Wambugu. Also a Ugandan and at least three Rwandans were recruited even as the group sought to create a hacking software, according to intelligence reports.
In 2016, Forkbombo is believed to have merged with another group of hackers, Grapzone, which had since 2013 been targeting supermarkets.
In another group is – SilentsCards, a home grown cyber cartel which sprung from Forkbombo Group which terrorised local banks in 2016 and 2017 before being quelled by a multi-agency team of experts from Kenya Revenue Authority, Banking Fraud Unit and Cyber Crime Unit.
According to Poland based cybersecurity firm OnNet, the SilentCards started robberies late 2017, inheriting the old version key logger used by Forkbombo and perfected it for collection of key logger data in a targeted environment.
Report shows that that just like Forkbombo group, SilentCards also targeted information servers, copy and evaluate audit reports to plan future attacks. After collecting as many credentials as they could, those hackers moved Sh400 million in batches, crediting fictitious accounts, then accessed either via VISA/MasterCard overseas or with use of Mobile Money Transfers.
Unlike Forkbombo which has several money mules, SilentCards relies a lot on foreigners for quick transactions outside the country. Those hackers are known to specialize in python scripts to create quick tools for exploitation phase of an environment.
They are also known to use opensource tools like Empire, Metasploit, DeathStar, Bloodhound, CrackMapExec, Aesshell, XmultiShell, CHAOS and Katoolin.
It is believed that SilentCards joined withupshot GrapZone late last year to regroup into Forkbombo.
According to a report by Group iB, one of the top global providers of cyber security solutions, Kenya is emerging as one of the thriving hubs for cyber crime in the world. “Currently, only five groups pose a real threat to the financial sector; Cobalt, Silence, MoneyTaker (Russian), Lazarus (North Korea), and SilentCards (a new group from Kenya),” explained the security firm in its 2019 High-tech Crimes report.
Group iB has been conducting threat analysis for the last 17 years and says SilentCards is known for attacks on ATMs and card processing systems, and has operated under the radar of global security analysts until 2018.
This group led by a man named Rueben also known as Ben, operationalized use of hackers from other threat groups with use of Grapzone’s leadership for the toughest targets around East Africa. With his leadership, the group started to expand to Central Africa, attempting to beat SilentCards threat-group in expansion around the area.
One of the exceptions OnNet CTI analysts noted with this group, was use of financiers who joined and injected money into the group in order to get dividends as if they were directors. Obliquely, Forkbombo group operated like a company or rather a cooperate entity.
With Forkbombo gone, OnNet collected intelligence on several groups as they broke up and mutated in 2019 than observed before in East African Cyber Threat Intelligence.
The newest group which we observed breaking out of SilentCards is called “The Consultants.” At the top of their target list are Government Financial Systems.
As these groups grow and mutate, resilient prevention capabilities are required to stop and evict them.
The Forkbombo cybercrime gang
Senior members of the Forkbombo group are still behind bars, while they still have charges in other countries around East Africa for several cyber heists conducted over the years.
Recently, Bakers sliced bread prices by Sh5 on the stiff competition by supermarket in-store bakeries, hurting their profit margins in the wake of the prevailing high global cost of wheat.
The price of bread in the in-store bakeries has been cheaper by an average Sh5 since April when rival bakers raised their prices in a fresh attempt to pass the additional cost in the price of wheat to consumers.
The in-store bakeries did not adjust their prices — titling the scale as price-sensitive consumers opted for the cheaper products. Spooked by the consumer shift, bakers have now lowered their prices to keep up with the competition.
400g loaf of Superloaf and Festive is now retailing at Sh50 from Sh55 previously with 800-gramme Festive brand selling at Sh92 from Sh100, depending on the point of purchase — and also Selecta and Kingsmill “Kubwa wako” who are small fish bakers in the market lowering their prices but with increased exaggerated abnormal quantities than a standard 400g bread, sparking mixed reactions from concerned consumers in curiosity questioning the ingredients used which makes their quantity size be outstanding abnormally in a bid to attract price sensitive and quantity enthusiasts of bread.
Selecta and Kingsmill are new entrants into the market and are up and about marketing every left, right and center boasting of a quantity size over other competitors like hybrid chicken get plumbed with harmful chemicals to fatten in a nick of time to cop up with market demand— this could be the situation in size matter campaign of these two baking companies.
Definitely Kingsmill and Selecta aren’t counting losses from their big sized bread products as they appear 600g bread being sold at 400g market price. They aren’t on a charity mission. They’re are literally either using harmful chemicals, ingredients under the watch of KEBS — targeting low income majority groups in Kenya who are price sensitive and quantity enthusiasts.
However, Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has constantly absolved itself from the issue and instead shifted it to the weights and measures department.
‘‘Thank you for being a keen observer. @KEBS_ke is mainly concerned with the quality of the bread as our mandate. Matters weight is the mandate of the weights and measures department.”
The deal is just too sweet which Kenyans ought to think twice. Consumers aren’t protected at all when such gamble is tolerated and not investigated in the wake of rising cases of cancer in Kenya.
Quality must be over quantity. Competition Authority of Kenya together with Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) must come with a regulation to control these kind of market malice to level the field for fair play. Cofek and CAK must protect the health of the consumers, must confirm the products of these two brands: Kingsmill and Selecta are of standard in terms of quantity for fair play with other competitors and not foul play. Because those paying the price after falling prey is the consumers.
Appearing before Parliamentary Labour committee, Mr Chelugui CS for Labour appeared alongside PS Peter Tum to explain the circumstances that led to the death of Melvin Kang’ereha in Saudi Arabia in 2020.
In his statement to the committee of the legislators, Mr. Chelugui disclosed that country recorded 93 deaths in the past three years from Kenyans working in the Middle East. He however, failed to provide a detailed breakdown of areas where the victims were buried in the country.
He told MPs that the Ministry is unable to provide a detailed breakdown on the deaths of Kenyans which occurred mostly in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arabs Emirates (UAE). He told the National Assembly’s Labour Committee that Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior are best placed to provide the details.
“We had 93 cases of death, particularly from the Gulf region. When these deaths occur, we occasionally have no view at the airport when the bodies arrive.
“We are following up with the Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior to know who the victims are and where they came from in the country,” he told MPs.
He said since January 2019, the ministry facilitated the employment of over 87,784 Kenyans in the Gulf Region. A majority of the migrant workers are in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain.
“Within the same period, the ministry has received reports of 93 deaths of Kenyan migrant workers in the Gulf Region.”
Majority of the cases are reported to have been caused by natural death such cardiac arrest, Covid-19, cancer, childbirth, respiratory complication, tuberculosis and meningitis. Other causes include accidents and suicide.
“The ministry is in consultation with Foreign Affairs and Interior and Coordination ministries -towards desegregating data for Vihiga County,” he said.
Nominated MP Godfrey Otsotsi, who sought to know how Ms Kang’ereha died, rejected Mr Chelugui’s response that the young woman died in prison from natural causes after she was jailed for threatening to kill her employer.
Mr Otsotsi promised to table video and audio recordings of the woman pleading with her employer and United Manpower Services Limited to return her to Kenya.
“I have video and audio recordings that would proof that this woman did not die of natural causes. There is a Philippine witness and the case is being pursed in Saudi Arabia by human rights groups. I find the answers unsatisfactory,” Mr Otsotsi said.
He said the recruiting agent refused to hear the pleas of the Kenyan worker after the Saudi employer mistreated and tortured her including denying her meals.
“United Manpower Services instead transferred the young woman to another employer who mistreated and tortured her leading to her imprisonment. Apart from relying on third party information from Saudi authorities, what have you done to do proper investigations?” Mr Otsotsi said.
He demanded to know the action the Ministry has taken to compel United Manpower Services to compensate the family of the deceased. Mr Chelugui conceded that the Ministry relied on Saudi authorities which said the cause of death was as a result of natural causes in prison.
“We have only one Labour Attaché in Jeddah whom we rely to handle Saudi Arabia which is as big as East Africa region. We need funds to hire six more attaché’s to cover Saudia,” Mr Chelugui said.
He said the government has entered into three bilateral Labour agreements with governments of Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia in a bid to protect migrant workers.
Mr Chelugui said a draft Labour Migration Management Bill and a Migrant Workers Welfare Fund will be established following a Cabinet directive.
………………….
The greener pasture phenomenon has been so cruel to especially African – workers who migrate in search of better pay for sustainability back home. The lucky ones survive the journey until they come back home while some end up in limbo.
We’ve seen highly graphic sensitive videos of migrant-workers being assaulted by their employers in the middle east neither once nor twice but on multiple times.
They’re traded like goods – Black market currency trade exchange from one employer to another. In an investigative documentary I once came across uncovered the Blackmarket of the human trafficking of migrants in the middle East. An illegal application software — prototype of an E-commerce app created to trade migrant workers within – each valued at different cost like goods. A business like Land and Real estate business where you employ a worker then after two or three months they are traded with different employers at an appreciated price to making profit.
The greener pasture phenomenon of oversees has become a death trap to many African migrants. But unfortunately Some cases of assault on migrants- workers are self-inflicted. With everyone entitled to their opinion; my advise to my fellow countrymen and women in the middle east is they should never also forget they’re not on a vacation.
However much these employers act on inhuman and barbaric manners, we ought to also listen to both sides of the story and neither justifying violation of these workers human rights. Let my fellow Africans working in Gulf learn to keep their cool, mind their own business, see no evil, do no evil until their contract terminates and come back home in peace or be arrogant, hot-tempered to your employer, see evil, do more evil and come back in pieces.
More information from our source – the whistleblower continues to unfold the rot in the Procurement industry with the help of PPRA-PPRB the procurement authorities. The corrupt Jubilee Insurance Co / Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Co king of kickbacks colluding with the authorities to win tenders through rigging – birds of the same feathers flocking together.
“BID RIGGING AND CORRUPTION IN KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES – KNH/T/46/2021-2022
Good morning,
We plead for your keen attention on the matter referenced. KNH advertised for the above tender that closed on 8/6/2021. We will clearly outline how the whole scandal chronologically unfolded. All the information given here is the actual status on the ground and is verified and verifiable. We again state that we have and will continue to observe professionalism, ethics and objectivity throughout the matter.
PRIOR TO ADVERTISEMENT
KNH had running contracts with CIC Life Assurance Ltd for Group Life Cover. The same tender included other classes of general insurance which were awarded to other companies. The tender was advertised in 2019 and awarded with no challenges. Contracts were to run for two yertas: 201-2020 and 2020-2021, commencement date being April 2019 and end date March 2021. We have however established that, just before the end of the contracts, KNH extended the contracts by three months from March 2021 to June 2021. According to the Professional Opinion seen by us that was recommended to the CEO by the Head of Procurement for approval signed in March 2021, justification for the three months extension was so as to align the contract period with the financial year. KNH has several contracts for adverse services including security, cleaning, gardening services among others whose start and end dates are not aligned with the financial year shenanigan. How these insurance services contracts were the only one sensitive to the financial year period cannot be explained.
After the extension, the journey of preparing for advertisement of the new tender began. Our investigations have revealed that the new items in question were introduced by people in the insurance industry who were involved in preparation of the tender document. Two underwriters and an agent who exposed the KNH staff without knowing convinced KNH to include the items as mandatory in the tender document. One tender document was prepared combining both Group Life business and the general business.
Group Life business is where the turpitude and depravity is. Unknowingly, KNH was lured into adopting the scandalous criteria and blindly putting the same in the tender document. The criteria demanded that the underwriter must have made 100Million profit for the last three years and Gross premium of 500M for the year 2020 as per IRA reports. When the IRA reports are analysed, only one company Jubilee Life Assurance Limited meets the two criteria for Life business. This was done intentionally so as to lock all other life business underwriters. See the analysis below:
The figures are derived from the IRA reports as was required in the tender document.
Insurance Co.
2020
2019
2018
APA Life Assurance Company
115,843,000
28,684,000
(66,752, 000)
ICEA Lion Life Assurance
774,360, 000
690,245, 000
600,295, 000
Jubilee Insurance Company
1,197,880, 000
2,198,267, 000
1,408,505, 000
Liberty Life Assurance Company
273,016, 000
478,613, 000
283,311, 000
Sanlam Life Assurance
649,621,000
–
–
Britam Life
(2,207,207, 000)
4,213,789,000
(960,370, 000)
Old Mutual Life Assurance
(346,154, 000)
175,825,000
480,732,000
Pioneer Assurance Company
(60,645, 000)
142,288,000
(35,258, 000)
UAP Life Assurance Company
(532,751, 000)
219,708,000
251,120,000
According to the above analysis, only three (3) Life underwriters will have made profits for the three years required and will pass criteria number 12. These are: Jubilee Insurance Company, Liberty Life Assurance Company and ICEA Lion Life Assurance. Criteria no. 13 for life underwriters required that the life underwriter should have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million. Analysis of the three (3) underwriters who pass criteria no. 12 have the following Gross premiums indicated against their names:
names:
Insurance Co.
Gross underwritten premiums
Jubilee Insurance Company
704,881, 000
Liberty Life Assurance Company
376,687,000
ICEA Lion Life Assurance
326,242,000
Going by the analysis given above, it’s worth noting that only Jubilee Insurance Company can meet the two mandatory requirements in the market. It’s in the same that we conclude that the tender document was customized to ONLY allow Jubilee Insurance Company and no other company whatsoever to qualify for the life business. This is despite the fact that Kenya has close to thirty (30) underwriters registered for Life Business.
AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
Several insurance companies had noticed the presence of the malicious criteria in the tender document. The companies went ahead and made enquiries requesting for revision of the mandatory requirement that formed the preliminary evaluation criteria. The companies include: Britam, Liberty, Metropolitan Canon, Kenindia and Sanlam. KNH ignored all the queries and concerns raised and never responded to any of them. They were quickly printed by the office of the Director Supply Chain Management and deleted from the email, probably assuming that the same will be deleted from the senders’ emails. Other stakeholders including agents also complained of the criteria. No response was given at all but rather promised to deal with the consequences irrespectively. Reasons why the same were included in the tender document have never been given upto now. There’s no basis at all for the profitability criteria and neither the procurement laws nor insurance nor Public Finance laws support the same. It’s therefore illegal in its mentioning.
Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement only if the person satisfies the following criteria:
(a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act; (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices.
We were not able to trace where profitability lies in the above.
TENDER CLOSING
During tender closing/ opening, it was noted that one bidder, Geminia Insurance Limited submitted one composite document meaning that the financials attached in the tender document were for the composite company and not for the subsidiary company. All the other bidders separated the life business financials from general financials and submitted the bid documents separately. For instance, Jubilee Life Assurance Ltd submitted a separate bid from Jubilee General Insurance Ltd.
TENDER EVALUATION
DURING TENDER EVALUATION, THE COMMITTEE NOTICED THAT THERE WERE ISSUES IN THE TENDER DOCUMENT. They immediately wrote to the office of the Head of Procurement requesting for clarification and professional advice on how to manoeuvre with the evaluation. The issues raised were:
That the criteria on 100Million profitability for the year 2020 was not objective but rather subjective since, under Life business, only one bidder passed and therefore making it not competitive, which would mean that more stable and competitive bidders were locked out of the tender.
The issue of Geminia Insurance who submitted composite financials. The head of procurement was requested to advise on how the bidder would be evaluated among others.
The tender document requested for Gross Premium. How to calculate the gross premium was given in the tender document and therefore the item was ambiguous.
Instead of officially responding to the tender evaluation queries, the management influenced the committee to ignore the issues raised and proceed to award to the already pre determined awardees. The report was rushingly done, forwarded after working hours, professional opinion done at the same time and approved at night of the same day when all other staff had left the hospital so as to leave the other staff unaware of what was happening.
During evaluation, we contacted KNH in effort to plead for a response but they continually ignored our concerns. At one point before the tender closed, when an underwriter visited the procurement offices, he was kept waiting for five hours and later gave up and left.
AFTER AWARD
We made several complaints to both KNH and PPRA. None was responded to. We realized that KNH had promised both ther agent involved and the bidders in question that they would control the situation and not bother with the complaints. CIC Life Assurance Ltd challenged the procurement process at PPRA on 24th June 2021 exactly ten days after the tender award. KNH signed the letters of award on 14th June 2021. PPRA has never responded to the issues raised . We made several complaints subsequently but both parties played dumb. Public offices are put in place for a purpose and public officers should conduct their duties ethically and professionally.
In an effort to water down the issues raised and counter our complaints as their way of cooling down the heat, KNH management and the agent who choreographed the scandal agreed to form a pseudo mail account and masquerade as a concerned underwriter and purport that we are following up on the same because we are paid to do to so and that our concerns are baseless and aims at tainting the name of the hospital. They also negotiated with PPRA and requested PPRA to block all emails coming from us.
The email was created on 5th July 2021: [email protected]. This is the email used to counter our complaints and arrogantly respond to us, whose responses are equivocal and scanty hogwash.
This has prompted our investigations to go a notch higher and we can now authoritatively report that google gurus are on it. Preliminary investigations have unearthed that, according to google coordinate protocols, the email address used i.e [email protected]was registered with this safari.comnumber, 0722***585
This number after investigations belongs to a kenyan in the insurance industry who is a registered agent, one that we’ve constantly mentioned to be the choreographer and mastermind of the scandal and is involved in several others in the government including The Youth Fund that previously led to the dismissal of the former head of procurement. The number is also traced with some KNH officers in sports clubs, parking lots and some residential places before, during and after the tender. We however note that the parties have now opted to communicate via whatsapp in fear of being tracked.
We are in the assignment of getting more information and profiles of the parties involved and will be back with more information.We won’t expose all the details at this stage.
We request that you take the matter seriously so as to stop the impunity and scam in KNH and the insurance industry.
Regards.
On Thu, 1 Jul 2021 at 18:16,
To Director,
Public Procurement Regulatory Authority
Attention: PPRB
Good evening,
We wish to come to you once again in regards to the same subject matter. All the issues raised in our previous correspondences have never been addressed by the procuring entity and no response whatsoever has ever been given to us. We feel that this is impunity and lack of respect to stakeholders and the state at large.
Kindly note that we raised the issues way before the tender closed. It’s now three (3) weeks plus and still counting. It’s worth noting that the main issue was and still is the criteria that was maliciously introduced in the tender documentby KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) for the tender for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022. The criteria read “The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) as per IrA reports.
We have previously indicated that the same was introduced after a meeting that the KNH bosses had with senior officers in Jubilee Life assurance Ltd who were introduced to each other by an insurance agent (who is related to the Head of Procurement in KNH and come from the same place)and have previously fixed several deals together according to the agent), and who lured them into introducing the criteria so as to knock out all other bidders in Life underwriting services and only pave way for Jubilee Life assurance Ltd who would later win the said tender. We will not mention names for now.
We requested KNH to provide the legal basis that supports this criteria and upto now they have never responded. They ignored all our concerns and never issued any addendum, but went ahead and awarded the tender. All the queries went unanswered.The general definition of Gross Premium is “The revenue of a company after it accounts for what had to be paid out to return that revenue, meaning it is the amount of money actually earned. How to calculate gross profit: Gross Profit = Total Revenue – Total Cost. IRA reports only provide for Profit before tax and profit after tax. How this issue was treated in the tender evaluation remains a mystery.
It’s in the public domain that KNH bosses have assured the agent and the underwriter who was awarded the Life Insurance business that they will handle PPRB staff and that no complaint will be successful. As of now, we are aware that CIC Life Assurance Co. Ltd have already challenged the procurement process with PPRA/Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) and we are equally aware that KNH bosses who have their cuts already negotiated and assured are working day and night to influence the decision of the Review board, and that they are rushing to sign the contracts so that payment can be done urgently even as complaints are put every day.
We kindly request for your urgent action so as to end the impunity and outright corruption.
Regards,
On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 at 20:45,
Attention
DIRECTOR,
PPRA & PPRB
We report to you the above subject matter whereby KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) advertised for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022 on 27th May 2021 that closed on 08/06/2021. We noted that two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business (page 24 of the tender document) were intentionally introduced in the tender document for this year so as to only allow one underwriter, who is the only one who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender. The items are:
1. Preliminary criteria no. 12 , The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) and,
2. Preliminary criteria no. 13 life underwriters must have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million for the year 2020.
The item of profitability coupled with Gross premium of Kshs. 500 Million were put as mandatory in the tender document to lock out all other Life business underwriters and only allow Jubilee Life assurance Ltd win the tender.
Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement only if the person satisfies the following criteria:
(a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act; (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices.
As we have previously indicated, these two items in question were introduced by an agent in agreement with the underwriter who convinced KNH bosses after discussing their share.The same agent is lying to unsuspecting accounting officers and Heads of Procurement who seem not to properly understand the insurance business and at times, misadvising them on matters insurance which later backfires and leaves them in serious problems. The Fact of the matter is that the items are unlawful and contravene the provisions of all the procurement, public finance and insurance laws. Eligibility of tenders is clearly and precisely outlined in the above mentioned section 55 of the procurement Act.
We would also want to bring to your attention that the same issues were raised by the KNH Tender Evaluation Committee who noticed the weirdness of their inclusion into the tender document. The committee would immediately write to the Head of Procurement requesting for guidance on how to handle them since they were very subjective and locked out all the other bidders in the Life business.
The issues raised by the evaluation committee were not responded to but instead the committee was silenced and assured of their share. Other members of the committee who tried to enquire further were intimidated and blackmailed.
It’s also worth noting that we, and other insurance stakeholders raised these issues way before the tender closed. Underwriters, also, some of whom participated and others who chose not to participate in the tender, also raised issues both in soft and in print. All those issues and queries raised were ignored and went unanswered. Negligence and lack of professionalism at the highest.
As at now, the tender has already been awarded and KNH chose to communicate to all other bidders who participated and leave out the current service provider so that they may NOT know the results and therefore fail to challenge the procurement process with the Procurement Review Board: the window of which expires tomorrow 28/06/2021.
The issues of negligence highlighted are so unfortunate and we call upon the authority and all other regulatory bodies to take the matter seriously and deal with the scam once and for all.
CIC Insurance Group Limited, commonly referred to as CIC Group, is an insurance and investment group that operates mainly in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Malawi.
Following the underwriter’s capacity to generate internal capital being sluggish in the previous five years considering weak earnings performance demonstrated over the same period – South Africa-based Global Credit Ratings (GCR) has downgraded the credit profiles of CIC Insurance Group general and life units.
GCR assigned CIC Life a financial strength rating of BBB (KE), from BBB+ (KE), citing a deterioration in the group’s credit profile with a negative outlook.
It also downgraded CIC General’s financial strength rating of BBB+ (KE) to BBB (KE) with a negative outlook.
The agency said the rating downgrade on CIC Life followed the group’s continued elevated exposure to investment property — mainly land banks — on the backdrop of a significant shareholder loan, which is on commercial terms.
Last year 2020, CIC Insurance Group made a Sh335.5 million net loss in the half year ended June, reversing a net profit of Sh20.9 million the year before. This came as investment income fell 25.9 percent to Sh1.2 billion in a period when the Covid-19 pandemic pulled down share prices on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and returns on fixed income investments like bank deposits and T-bills.
The insurers’ bottom-line was also hurt by a 7.6 percent rise in claims to Sh5.4 billion. Its net premiums was flat at Sh7.1 billion. CIC’s operating expenses dropped 10.7 percent to Sh2.8 billion while finance costs declined 10.1 percent to Sh302 million.
The company’s borrowings rose marginally to Sh3.77 billion but refinancing of part of its debt at lower rates helped it save on interest expenses.
The insurer last year redeemed its Sh5 billion bond (which had a 13 percent coupon) using a mix of internal cash flows and a Sh4.5 billion loan from Co-op Bank obtained at an interest rate of 12.5 percent.
Co-op Bank owns a 24.8 percent stake in the insurer with which they share the model of serving saccos as their main customer base.
CIC had initially planned to settle the bond using proceeds from sale of its 712 acres of freehold land but the proposed disposals are yet to be completed.
In an email seen by Kenya insights from one of their frustrated agent, shows how the struggling CIC has been dealing with their employees nowander their sluggish capacity to generating internal capital hence their degradation.
“The strugglingCIC Group have always stolen from their agents. Being a victim I can tell you they have stolen from me like over 200k. This is because they need that you bring cases every day or every week if you fail you forfeit the subsequent commissions for the previous months. But another scum is that once they realize you qualify for more commissions they terminate you from their systems then deny you.”
In 2015, CIC Insurance sacked eight senior and middle-level managers accused of defrauding the company of an undisclosed amount of money during the fencing of land it owns in various locations and the setting up of IT infrastructure for its new building.
Information memorandum for the insurer’s Sh5 billion bond offer of September 2014 showed that the group had a combined 714 acres in Kajiado and Kiambu counties.
Real estate investment was to take up 34 per cent or Sh1.7 billion of proceeds from the bond sale. The remaining portion of Sh3.3 billion was reserved for regional expansion, setting up of a medical facility, re-capitalisation and other corporate activities.
The bond was oversubscribed by 27 per cent after it got offers worth Sh6.34 billion against a Sh5 billion target.
In a market dominated by Jubilee Insurance Company , CIC has slimmer chance of survival and to recover and increase their earnings CIC might tend to overprice its poor services inorder to retain back its capital ratings back to BBB+
In June this year, Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) re-introduced their third national consumer rewards promotions with an aim in ‘fighting illicit brews’ – promotion geared at rewarding loyal Senator beer consumers.
According to the initiators, the campaign aim to provide a safe, ultra-low-cost beer to compete with illegal supplies which could play a crucial role in both resolving alcohol-related health problems and in achieving the targeted growth for Diageo.
KBL Managing Director John Musunga said the Shikisha Form na Senator Ushinde, embodies the Senator customers’ pursuit of better lives and seeks to celebrate and recognize their unbridled loyalty and contribution in establishing the Senator brand as the most successful value beer brand in Kenya.
Beyond rewarding a nationwide consumer audience, Shikisha Form Na Senator Ushinde orchestrators aim tofacilitate the upgrade of key retailer outlet upgrades in the same promotion through provision of seats and tables, mugs, jugs and rebranding of their outlets.
To participate, consumers are required to purchase two 500ml mugs (either Senator Lager or Dark Extra) to get issued with a scratch card. They are then required to SMS a unique valid code found under the scratch panel to a 5-digit short code to get an entry into the competition. One valid code gives one entry.
The scratch cards
So, the strategy is, the more mugs you purchase, the more scratch cards, the more entry you record and ‘the higher your chances of winning.” Unaware and unsuspecting customers hop in for the sweet deal without blinking an eye not knowing that every SMS you send of the code to the 5-digit code, you’re charged 10/- as that isn’t included in requirements, terms and conditions atleast for awareness. So, if you buy more mugs- it’s to their advantage, you get more scratch cards – it’s to their advantage as you’ll be charged more in the mobile network transaction fee unaware. And with cheap Keg beers they’re out to promote, targeting the vulnarable less fortunate families – low income groups who more often believe in lottery fallacy as the only way to get rich.
Besides Pyramid schemes, recent ponzi scheme, now KBL with help of EABL are here with exploitative lottery scheme in the name of promotion.
Having done my observations and research —of which many more other researches on the same have been published with regards to lottery schemes that’s becoming a menace in Kenya that even recently The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) banned radio stations from running lotteries and prize competitions over rampant fraud — it is the slums and the poverty rooted families that are always being targeted by the betting/lottery firms.
If you take a walk or a ride to Eastlands settlement, slum areas in the City – you’ll find tremendous betting firm offices that offers these families free access to their betting sites being that most of the target group in these areas are percieved not to have smartphones, they lure them into addiction of instant virtual games with betting stakes as low as 10/-.
Same situation here in Shikisha form na Senator Ushinde promotion where their mugs beer are sold as low as 50/-, 30/-.
Now lets do this cumulative maths how these people are making huge sums of money and giving peanuts in return in the name of promotions. We must be clear that the target group is the low- income consumers who can only afford the cheap Keg beer and who believes in lottery as the only way to richness. This targeted group is a jobless group, and drinking is their business.
Lets takes an example of Kiambu county, In a small size bar or pub, 10 friends in a day takes 4 mugs each, thats 2000/- in a day times 7 days a week for the addicts, thats 14,000/- times over 1000 such like pubs in one county – that’s 14,000,000 in a week times 40 active counties in the country out of the 47 counties thats roughly over 500,000,000 every week then add the 10/- scratch card charges for every 2 mugs purchased for this group every time the take two mugs for the next three months. The campaign is being run for 3 months before these prizes are given out. The billions of money being exploited in this scheme is almost the country’s annual budget.
Remember as of last year 2020, the 2020 Comprehensive Poverty Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS)indicated that 15.9 million out of 44.2 million Kenyans are poor, describing this scenario as an adult earning less than Sh3,252 in rural areas and Sh5,995 monthly in urban areas. Kenya is ranked the top beer consumer in East Africa and top 7 in Africa.
Promotion prize offers.
The promotion will feature an array of prizes, with the grand prize being Ksh. 10 million. Additionally, 5 loyal customers stand a chance to win Ksh. 2 million each, with Ksh. 1 million set aside to improve their community as well as themselves. Additionally, there will be airtime worth Ksh. 56 million, home shopping worth Ksh. 12 million and home makeovers worth Ksh. 2.4 million.
The innocence of KBL’s Senator Keg in lias with EABL aim of launching this exploitative lottery scheme in the name of promotion to curb illegal sales of beer and illicit brews is just 10%. Aim of exploitating unsuspecting customers is 90%.
Sales of Senator Keg, a low-priced lager made from locally grown sorghum, rose by close to a third in the last financial year. According to a 2020 ranking by London-based firm Brand Finance, Senator Keg Lager emerged as among the fastest growing brand in Africa’s top 150 most valuable brand leveraging on a 10-million-man pool for drinkers – having grown by 88% to hit a brand value of Kshs 14.4 billion. It has earned its status due to a huge demand from price-sensitive consumers who are literally low income earners. Abuse of dominance is on course in this lottery scheme.
The terms and conditions of buying more mugs to stand higher chances of winning, condition of drinking minimum of two mugs is harmful to health, its addictive method and they know it. These conditions encourages excessive alchohol consumption on the side of the consumer with an aim to get the consumer buy more, then also charge them more when sending the SMS codes.
During lauch of the promotion campaign with Njoro of Papa Shirandula(middle) appointed the brand ambassador for the campaign
This exploitation is underway with the knowledge of the authorities from EABL, Communication Authority, Telco companies: Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom – Consumers Federation of Kenya (CoFeK), Legislators in parliament. All in payslip to keep pin-drop silence on the scheme.
New details have emerged months after DPP Noordin Haji approved the prosecution of former KPA managing director Daniel Manduku over Sh244 procurement irregularities. Manduku was charged alongside KPA works officer Juma Chigulu.
A fresh Sh62.7 million scandal has rocked the Kenya Ports Authority in what is threatening to destroy the careers of top officials of the troubled state corporation.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has unearthed irregular awarding of a Sh40 million tender given to the mother of a senior KPA clerical officer. Through the Clerical officer’s mother, her firm Chemiso East Africa was awarded Ksh 62.7 million for a Ksh 40 million tender by KPA – an excess of Ksh 22 million.
“Investigations established that the procurement was irregular, which resulted in unlawful payments amounting to Sh62,732,772.74 to the proprietors of Chemiso East Africa,” EACC said.
“Investigations further established the evaluation committee didn’t conduct proper technical evaluation and there was conflict of interest.”
On January 4, the EACC forwarded the investigations file to the DDP’s office recommending high-profile prosecutions, including the senior clerical officer and the head of procurement and supplies.
Also recommended for prosecution are head of civil engineering, all members of the tender evaluation committee and the proprietor and signatory of Chemiso East Africa.
The anti-graft agency wants the officials charged with, among others, conflict of interest, fraudulent acquisition of public property, willful failure to comply with the law relating to procurement, money laundering and obtaining a contract from a public institution by false pretence.
KPA has been swimming in a pool of scandals and from its top leadership – it’s officials from ExManaging Director has been prosecuted, Finance Manager also been prosecuted over irregular tenders awarded, abuse of office, money laundering and so on. It’s a double-edged sword.
After 6 years since the launch of investigations, no single prosecution nor conviction made and when promising findings are made, AG Paul Kihara Kariuki Contravenes to protect the sacred cows from being publicised. AG has clearely contravened the independence of the CBK as articulated in Article 231-3 which states, “The Central Bank of Kenya shall not be under the direction or control of any person or authority in the exercise of its powers or in the performance of its functions.”
Its a game of cards; personal interests at the expense of constitutionalism.
The Attorney-General blocked the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) from revealing or tabling in Parliament findings of a forensic audit on the collapse of Imperial Bank. CBK governor Patrick Njoroge and Treasury Cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani said the State could not share findings or summaries of the report with the National Assembly as required under Article 125 of the Constitution. Dr Njoroge said there are several cases related to the forensic audit that are before the courts and further work by investigating agencies was progressing.
“The Attorney-General advised that, in the circumstances, sharing at this stage the findings and summaries of the forensic audit would undermine investigations and prejudice successful prosecution and defence of the ongoing cases. The overriding objective is to guard against prejudicing the course of investigations,” he said.
Imperial Bank directors were accused of failing to co-operate with the CBK on the reopening of the bank through their refusal to deposit Sh10 billion as the first step to reviving the lender.
The CBK then went ahead in 2016 and hired FTI, a specialised forensic accounting consultancy, to Imperial Bank books and assist CBK and KDIC to institute criminal and civil proceedings against those responsible for the collapse of the bank.
“Given the significance of these cases with respect to the financial sector and also the legal system, and the strong desire not to jeopardise their fair and prompt conclusion, CBK sees considerable risk,” Dr Njoroge said told the Finance Committee.
He did not disclose the amount paid to FTI after Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi demanded to know why CBK still pays the auditor. He said CBK does not pay FTIs fees.
“This FTI consulting is still in CBK payroll and receiving billions of shillings from 2015. The governor is hiding something. Tell us how much money is this company being paid monthly or has been paid,” said Mr Atandi.
The Washington DC-based firm was first called in by besieged Imperial Bank directors to look into allegations of massive fraud at the lender following the demise of long-serving Managing Director Abdulmalek Janmohamed.
A preliminary forensic audit by FTI Consulting revealed that Mr Janmohamed could have discreetly siphoned out Sh39 billion from Imperial Bank between 2002 to September 15, 2015 when he died — and wired the cash to his companies and bank accounts.
It was on the basis of FTI Consulting’s primary report that CBK decided to close down the bank on October 13, 2015 and broaden the firm’s mandate to carry out a comprehensive forensic audit into the lender.
In 2020, FTI’s findings traced Sh3.4 billion in eight bank accounts linked to former Imperial Bank managing director Abdulmalek Janmohamed who was accused of being behind an elaborate fraud scheme that robbed the lender of Sh34 billion over a period of 13 years.
The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) told the court that the accounts were opened using fictitious names under the direction of Mr Janmohamed, who died in September 2015—just a month before the lender was placed under receivership.
Court documents showed that the late Janmohamed and his associates used 12 companies to open accounts at Imperial Bank into which they deposited massive amounts that were then moved out of the bank before they were immediately closed.
The transfers were made by a section of the bank’s top managers, including current managing director Naeem Shah and his deputy, James Kaburu. The duo would then manipulate software systems at the bank to ensure the dummy accounts disappeared from the records.
FTI uncovered the eight banks accounts linked to Mr Janmohammed that were built with cash stolen from Imperial Bank. The accounts were registered as Gulshan Account, which has Sh364 million, Ali Shah account (Sh264 million), Barkat Khan account (Sh376 million), M Khan account (Sh341 million), B Mohamed Account (Sh337 million), Jionesh Shah account (Sh50 million), Zulfikar account (Sh376.5 million) and Hanscombe/Angelica account (Sh1.3 billion). The accounts were in the names Zulfikar Jessa, Zarina Mohammed, Angelica Industries Ltd and Barkat Khan, which court documents show were fake names.
“The bank claims jointly and severally against the deceased estate and the 2nd, 5th and 6th defendants the sum of Sh3.4 billion which amount was illegally and fraudulently received in trust from the SB accounts, which accounts is made up as follows,” says KDIC in court documents.
Court documents did not reveal the banks hosting the eight accounts, which have nearly 10 percent of the cash believed to have been siphoned from Imperial Bank. Proceeds of the fraud were mainly invested in real estate properties, offering fresh insights into the role that corruption and crime plays in driving Kenya’s housing market.
Mr Janmohamed left a vast estate, including prime real estate properties, shares in blue chip companies and loads of cash in various banks. The suit has also revealed a gigantic empire that Janmohamed left behind, which includes a five percent stake in Butali Sugar Mills and another five percent of Imperial Bank.
Other prominent companies he had a stake in are Old Mutual and Apex Securities. He also had shares in Sandview Properties, Allgate Limited, Serenity Limited, Plymouth Holdings, Upperview Properties, Downtown Holdings and Nature Stone Queries.
One of his companies, City Park Properties, owns office premises that rake in a total of Sh447,000 monthly. The Imperial Bank founder’s cash was saved in four bank accounts, one each at I&M Bank and National Bank of Kenya, and two at Standard Chartered Bank.
The Standard Chartered accounts were in foreign currency. Mr Shah and Mr Kaburu, despite revealing the scam to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), had not been spared as they were among the respondents in the suit. They admitted to making the illegal transfers but claim they did it on instructions from Mr Janmohammed.
The list of companies used in the fraudulent scheme includes E. Tilley (Muthaiga) Limited, Primecatch Exports, Mara Fish Packers, J Fish Limited, Victorian Delight, Ruby Red Limited, Value Pak Foods, From Eden Limited, Aqualite Limited, Marmo Granito Mines from Tanzania, Uganda’s Marmo Marbles and Fishways Limited. E. Tilley (Muthaiga) Limited alone admitted to receiving Sh10 billion from the bank and has expressed readiness to return the loot.
The final FTI report seems explicit and has linked big fish that AG is out to protect by all means.
Illegal Asian Immigrants have infiltrated the Asian companies in Kenya whose owners have managed to pocket the mandated authorities to keep off. Locals have complained now and again on the encroachment of basic jobs of which smuggled Asian nationalities have occupied.
Kibos sugar company owned by one of the Asian families is one of the many examples of failed Immigration mission to honour their allegiance to protecting the security of the country at all cost. According to our source, the jobs specifications for the alien workers in the company include security, supervisors in boilers, electrical mechanics, boiler operators, welders, fitters, timekeeper clerks and store men.
Their salaries according to oranges from Kshs 40,000 to Kshs 105,000 whilst the highest paid local employee earns about Kshs 45,000 p.m whom is boiler engineer. Not forgetting that these foreign workers are not subjected to statutory reductions such as for the NSSF and NHIF.
At some point in 2019, Immigration department attempted to enforce stringent immigration-related requirements and rules to protect the local labour market and ensure compliance with the immigration laws.
The Department of Immigration issued the following directives, effective immediately:
1. Tax Compliance Certificate requirement. Foreign nationals and employers applying for a work permit renewal must submit an individual and company Tax Compliance Certificates. The Certificate, which all employers and employees must obtain on an annual basis as part of tax compliance laws in Kenya, must meet Kenyan Revenue Authority regulations.
Impact. Work permit renewal applications submitted without the document will be rejected, which will delay the immigration process.
Employment information. Employers must submit information on their employees (including the name, gender, occupation, date of employment, nationality and educational level) using a template on the National Employment Authority (NEA) website or the NEA integrated Management system by July 8, 2019.In future years, the deadline will be January 31 for the preceding year’s information. In addition, employers must maintain a list with the same information in case of a government inspection.
Impact. Employers who fail to send their employee information by the deadline or who fail to maintain the list may face penalties in accordance with the law.
Increased scrutiny. The Department of Immigration has announced that it has increased its scrutiny of applications for long and short-term work permits.
Impact. More work permit applicants are likely to see rejections and there will likely be an increase in requests for additional documentation. Employers should obtain clearances from regulatory bodies in advance and should be ready to provide additional documentation, if required.
The sense of ownership and double standards the Chatthe family enjoys is beyond a normal citizen’s imagination. Kibos Sugar and Miwani factories have employed hundreds of undocumented Asians and the authorities are aware but maim on the matter as they are under the payslip of the barons.
These Asian aliens are said to be smuggled inn masquerading as missionaries, clergymen etc.
The Chatthe’s, who co-own Kibos Sugar factory, have destroyed the sugar industry in Kenya through the importation of toxic sugar, illegal dealings, killings on drunk driving and getting away with murder with the help of the authorities.
Toxic emissions from the factory putting the river and being overlooked putting locals in danger of untold dangerous long term health damages.
At some point, Kibos sugar company was shut down by NEMA over non-compliance in one of many illegal activities done by the family.Kibos had been emitting 245 micrometres of pollutants, five times more than the national standards. Kibos failed to adhere to emission reduction measures as set out in part (IV) of the 5tg schedule of the Air Quality Regulation 2014.With this contempt, The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) ordered for the immediate closure of Kibos Sugar and Allied industries for failing to comply with air quality regulations last year 2020. The authority undertook an ambient air quality monitoring from December 17-21, 2019.
Because of the serious environmental and health risk posed by the emission of particulate matter, the Authority considered that the c boiler operations contravened Article 42 of the Constitution which guarantees everyone a right to clean and healthy environment. The firm had been given the firm 30 days to install an effective air pollution control system at the boiler and provide its performance levels to Nema.
Kibos Sugar Company Ltd has managed to infiltrate, bribe and buy the silence of surrounding Luo leaders who now can’t raise a voice on the health hazards the locals are exposed to by the company thereby leaving them for the dead. The management thrives in impunity.
Besides air pollution, they were also on the radar for water pollution as the factory’s ethanol distillery has poor waste disposalpolluting the two rivers with dangerous chemical waste. The High Court in Kisumu on October 31 revoked the license of Kibos Sugar & Allied Industries Ltd (KSAIL) and shut down all its five factories after the Killer directors ignored NEMA warning and continued to pollute river Awach which leads to Lake Victoria.
Chatthe‘s sons
Kibos Sugar factory was founded by Patriarch Sardar Channan Singh Chatthe who ran the Chatteh Group of Companies and trustee of Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries LTD(KSAIL) he fried in January. Company is currently run by Mr. Sukhwinder Singh Chatthe — one of whose flamboyant sons (Simi Chatthe) whom is deemed to have been behind the company car’s wheel one fateful night when the official company’s car hit 3 people ( Meshak Ouma (37), George Oudi (28) and Martin Bonyo (25) who died on spot. This happened at around 9 pm in July, 2020 last year.
According to witnesses who were present at the gory scene, a speeding driver unsuccessfully attempted to overtake the three who were on a bodaboda but ended up knocking down and killing them all on the spot.
The car was driven into the the factory premises then the occupants fled away. To cover up the culprits, the suspect who was arrested and later released on bond following the incident was in fact neither driving nor inside the said vehicle which caused the accident.
Locals staged protests but all were in vain.
Protesters storm Kibos Sugar factory in Kisumu after three people were ran over & killed in an accident allegedly involving the company car on Saturday night pic.twitter.com/vOoCaTz5At
In 2018, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji ordered the prosecution of Mr Chatthe, Crossley Holdings and seven other suspects for conspiracy to fraudulently transfer the land between 2007 and 2008. Crossley, through a law suit, claimed to have acquired the land through an auction in 2007 and wanted the court to issue eviction order to the current occupants.
For the silence, Kibos Sugar management giving donations to locals overseen by Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o.
The company, which was represented by Mr James Orengo, claimed the parcel of land registered as LR No 7545/3 was then occupied partly by trespassers and illegal settlers.
Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association Secretary-General Richard Ogendo accused Crossley Holdings of attempting to defraud the State-owned miller of its prime land.
Crossly Holdings owned by Kibos Sugar Company chairman Sukhwinder Singh Chatthe. Agriculture Permanent Secretary Hamadi Boga told a National Assembly committee how the land was fictitiously transferred to Crossley Limited by people out to defraud the miller.
Former Kisumu Law Courts Chief Magistrate Abdulkarir Athman, Kibos Sugar Company chairman Sakhwinder Singh Chatte & 5 others have been arraigned in court. The suspects are accused of fraudulently acquiring over 9,000 acres of land belonging Miwani Sugar Company. #NTVAtOnepic.twitter.com/7UTjexwhLD
Taking advantage of their acquaintance with the DP Ruto who is the defiant face of impunity in government, this family like Mr.Jayesh, Rai family are taking advantage of Kenya’s weakest link -Corruption to have the guts.
DP Ruto at the furthest end (Right) with the Chatthe family
April 2021, another horrible incident happened in the company. Maurice Ongonyo, a bell tractor operator died on Thursday at the Kibos Sugar factory paper mill section after falling a moving conveyor belt, reports say. The incident that happened 1.30am would later turn out to be a case of an overworked, not motivate and underpaid employee incident.
With relevant authorities charged with safeguarding environment having failed to discharge their mandate to stop ‘the rot’ going on in River Kibos, regional lobby groups have been urging residents of the Lakeside County and its environs to boycott sugar from Kibos Sugar factory . Accordingly, boycotting sugar from the Kibos Sugar factory will go a long way in putting pressure on the factories’ management to stop polluting River Kibos which pours its water into Lake Victoria.
If you can remember, on record when terms and conditions was regulated to favor Minet to kick out NHIF and other insurance firms from TSC Medical scheme, the normalcy is repeating itself in the recent KNH PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES KNH/T/46/2021-2022 where terms and conditions were changed out from the cloud and that only left one candidate qualified.
Jubilee Insurance now Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Ltd have become thecorrupt dominant bully in the industry boasting of smuggled huge annual returns on corrupt deals. Jubilee Insurance is known for the dirty game of kickbacks in every tendering process they engage in.
Their contravention of Section 44 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act which prohibits an individual from receiving or soliciting or agreeing to receiving or soliciting a benefit borne out of a bidding exercise has always been their daily bread and contravention of Section 46 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act which cautions against a person using his office to improperly confer a benefit on himself or anyone else; Section 176 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act which requires a person not to unduly influence or exert pressure on any member of an opening committee evaluation committee or on any employee or agent of a procuring entity to take a particular action which favours or tends to favour a particular tenderer, neither to inappropriately influence tender evaluations and not to commit a fraudulent act and finally Section 204B of the Insurance Act which prohibits a licensed person from knowingly and willfully assisting, conspiring with, or urges any person to violate the law or for any person who due to such assistance, conspiracy or urging by the said person, knowingly or willfully benefits from the proceeds derived from the use of fraud — is Jubilee’s wine they drink.
In 2019, tender scandal for Provision of Medical Insurance Cover For Staff (KCAA-019-2019-2020) In a letter dated 22nd November, 2019, adressed to the Manding Dorector of KCAA Gilbert Kibe, copied to Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Office of the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics & Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPOA), and Ministry of Transport.
“It has come to our attention that the procurement process on the referenced tender is a mockery of the bona fide gesture on the part of the majority of the bidders who diligently go about their businesses justly and in accordance with the laws of this land. More disturbing is the fact that the process has been under the supervision of one of the bidders thus further camouflaged by guising as an innocent participant in the process, whilst in cahoots with members of staff at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority with the intention, will or craft to lure other participants and the general public that the same is a free and fair process.
We are at pains to understand why the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority members of staff would elect to ignore the principles of our Constitution as espoused under Article 10 of the Constitution on good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability. Prior to the release of the tender document, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, an insurance agent affiliated to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited, assisted in the drafting and finalization of the mandatory requirements listed on the published tender document.
Resultantly, the tender document suits the interests of Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya, more particular as set out under requirement No. 13 of the Mandatory Requirements listed on the tender document. It is noteworthy that currently, only Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya meets the threshold, hence no real bidding.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority is an entity well bound by Article 73 of the Constitution which advances objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and in ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices.
In blatant disrespect to these provision of the law, a meeting was held in November, 2019 at Panari Hotel along Mombasa Road, attended by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Human Resource Manager, Martin Kivui, representatives from Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited and the insurance company’s agent, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, among others. The subject of the meeting was proposition of a ‘kick-back’ amounting to Kshs. 48’000’000/- to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority officials should the tender be awarded to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited.”
Recently following Kenya Insightsexpose of Jubilee’s corrupt dealings, the recently awarded to them after bangling the process, this time won’t be an easy ride.
From documents seen following the bangled KNH PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES KNH/T/46/2021-2022 which PPRA the mandated authority has given deaf year to the complaints of the participants over unfair play, – it is such a pitty how corruption is being normalised in these tenderpreneual processes where kings of kickbacks get the lions share at the expense of sobriety and transparency in the market.
The KNH tender was divided into two businesses: Life business and general business with Life business being the rigged and customised for Jubilee Life Assurance Company. The tender was awarded on 14th June 2021.
Participation was as follows
1)GA INSURANCE CO LTD-General category
2)GEMINIA INSURANCE CO. LTD-Both General and life categories
3)UAP GENERAL LTD-General category
4)JUBILEE GENERAL LTD-General category
5)CIC GENERAL LTD-General category
6)HERITAGE INSURANCE LTD-General category
7)TRIDENT INSURANCE LTD-General category
8)APA GENERAL INSURANCE LTD-General category
9)JUBILEE LIFE LTD-Life category
10)CIC LIFE LTD-Life category
11)BRITAM LIFE LTD-Life category
12)KENYA ALLIANCE-General category
13)LIBERTY INSURANCE LTD-Life category.
After evaluation the tender was awarded to five underwriters lowest per each class
However, one of the concerned underwriter in an email seen tries to point fingers at the whistle blower and tries to downplay the bigger picture, their normalcy of interfering with tendering process forgetting they have history and it’s on record.
Here’s the statement;
“JUBILEE LIFE INSURANCE LTD KNH staff has been engaging Jubilee life since January but the underwriter was slow in confirming and declined 5 days to tender closing and participated directly after realising he was unnecessary for the following reasons
1)They confirmed he is not in procurement as he had claimed he was in charge of the process
2)He started asking for advance money
3)He had no intelligence to offer
-That is why he is dragging the Jubilee life name as the only bidder who won the tender and leaving the other four underwriter.
-Jubilee life knows him very well and we can also give his name and people they are working with to any institution which needs him.
-We also have CCTV footage of when he visited our offices.”
It’s usual PR move as we all know. Even the guilty tries to play innocent. If the purported staff is out to tarnish their name then it’s a scenario where the cat is being let out of the bag.
Jubilee Insurance/ Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Ltd lack the basic manners of ethical practice.
After President Uhuru Kenyatta’s emanation to power in 2013, his appointments to strategic positions in government parastatals have revolved around key figures from military and Intelligence service.
Some of the senior civil offices occupied by military or intelligence service Uhuru’s favorite men include the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC), Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) and the Kenya Coast Guard Service (KCGS).
Military.
1. Worst of All
KWS Boss John Waweru
KWS well-connected Director General of Kenya Wildlife Service Brigadier (Rtd) John Waweru was also a direct appointee of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Waweru was appointed to this position on March 13, 2019.
The rot at KWS is so deep that when State House instituted secret audit which exposed poor leadership, costly inefficiencies and capture of board by a section of management led DG Waweru and his loyal right-hand -men — Edwin Wanyonyi; the Deputy Director Strategy & Change, HOD Procurement Mr Wambua and HOD- Roads Mr Eng Walter Ochieng.
Gripping KWS’s centralised procurement system; the Waweru’s cartel hijacked the operations of the KWS Tender Evaluation Committee which openly demanded a ten percent standard kickback from tenderpreneurs who sought business from the state corporation that turns-over approximately Sh8 billion p a.
The four senior staff had been linked to corrupt dealings at KWS through phone and bank records as well as an intricate investigation into their social circles.
Waweru micromanages Road Maintenance Tenders (KWS receives substantial cash injection from the Kenya Roads Board for maintenance of roads within national parks and game reserves) with Engineer Ochieng who had developed a list of preferred contractors and suppliers most of whom the audit revealed were proxy companies they had shares in through relatives and associates.
The tenders were sub-divided and evenly distributed to the preferred suppliers. The DG Waweru who also acts as Corporation Secretary at Board level often blackmails Board members in the name of the President hence placed figureheads in all the main three board committees of finance, conservation and audit rendering all internal controls his tools of manipulation like in a military Barack.
In one controversial incident, Waweru managed to persuade the Board sanction the contract to build a new luxury residence inside the serene Nairobi National Park for himself as the Director General at the cost of Sh31 million.
This particular tender was awarded to a waste collection company suspected to be linked to the DG by proxy and one that has no experience in construction of buildings nor architecture nor design.
He’s also been alleged to be a womanizer “Even worse are an open secret that he has relationships with various women at KWS including the Head of Legal and Head of Security.“ Kenyan Report blog exposed. The state of affairs at KWS deteriorated so bad that disenchanted staff resorted to colluding with poachers thereby undermining wildlife conservation which is a core mandate of the KWS.
Confidential documents where the KWS employees were being forced to sign the trash documents in order to commit and agree that they won’t leak any information to the public in a bid to contain the crisis.
‘An employee shall not, under any circumstances, communicate with the media either in writing or by granting interview and making statements on matters affecting the Service programs or policies without the specific authority of the Director General. Where such authority has been obtained, the employee shall communicate with the press through the respective Divisional Head’, part of the new code of conduct stated.
‘Consequently, attached herewith please find an extract of the Service Code of Conduct to be signed by every employee under your jurisdiction. After signing, a copy is to be returned to this Headquarters for record purpose while the employee shall retain the original for reference’, the letter from Waweru stated.
2. Worst
Gordon Kihalangwa
In August 2014, Kenyatta appointed Retired Major-General Gordon Kihalangwa to fix the Immigration Department following demonstrated concerns over Kenya’s porous borders and their contribution to increased terror attacks in the country.
Kihalangwa retired from the military in 2013 after serving in major positions including Head of the Military Police and Assistant Chief of Defence Forces. He was appointed to replace Jane Waikenda who had served as a diplomat and was later posted to Kenya’s embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.
His appointment to fix the Immigration department later turned out to be a looting spree exercise with Passports scandal that was unearthed by then Auditor General Ouko. The department couldn’t account for missing 1.4 billion Kshs. Immigration department instead have worsened the corruption menace in the country under the military man’s watch. Later transferred to Ministry of Defense as PS and apparently Public works PS.
3. Worse
Julius Karangi
In June 2016, Kenyatta appointed former Chief of Defence Forces Joseph Karangi as the chairman at the Kenya Airports Authority before re-appointing him as a non-executive chairman to the board of the National Hospital Insurance Fund NHIF and now Chairman of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) which has been emtanglement bedrock for tenderprenuers cartels.
The looting in NSSF at one point allegedly led to a heated engagement between the the Rtd. General with President Kenyatta who at one time during the board’s zoom meeting stormed in and directed Chairman Karangi to make certain tender transactions to his (President) prefered firm to stabilise his housing agenda. A move that made Karangi furious and opted out of the meeting.
While at KAA, Karangi was ousted after influencing the supply of faulty scrutiny security machines using Magnate Ventures a company owned by a Kikuyu tycoon Stanley Kinyanjui that is currently under investigations. Karangi used his office also to oust the Jimmy Wanjigi affiliated firm that had been awarded the tender and had to be transfered before hell broke loose into public domain.
4.
George Nyamoko
In October 2018, Maj (Rtd) George Nyamoko, was picked by Kenyatta and given the role of heading the Kenya Maritime Authority as the Director-General. Nyamoko replaced Nancy Karigithu, a maritime lawyer and graduate of the University of Nairobi who had led the maritime authority in an acting capacity.
But after 2 years in the civilian office since 2018, Nyamoko resigned after scandalous construction of the Sh1.8 billion 15-storey KMA complex in Mbaraki area.
5. Worst
Capt. Gilbert Kibe
Captain Gilbert Kibe who also served at the military was appointed the Director General at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority. Before his appointment, Captain Kibe was serving at the Kenya Airforce as a trained pilot who had overseas training in military warfare.
Kibe’s incompetence is exemplified by the collapse of Eagle Aviation, a Mombasa based
operator he co-owned and managed with Kiran Patel. The airline run into
turbulence and wound up in 2003. Another insolvent firm Kibe co-owned and managed with Charles Muthama is Aero Kenya which collapsed in 2010.
In his tenure as the Director General of KCAA he has been accused of favoring specific aircrafts and isolating specific other ones being that he also owns an aviation school within Wilson airport. He has allegedly been working to the advantage of Jetways and Skyward which have cargo aircraft. And prior to which he operated LET 410 aircraft that transported miraa to Somalia and other destinations prior to his appointment as the DG.
Other operators; Bush Air, Rudufu, Buff Air, Capital Air, Freedom Airlines and Silverstone operate Fokker 50 aircraft felt the pinch.
He employed his concubines Sheila Kemunto and Praktisha Patel and gave them high ranking positions in the Licensing Department and Air Worthiness Inspection, lucrative positions.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an employee who works under said: ‘Kibe has always been more focused on clamping down on air operators rather than improving the
environment in which they operate.He’s not tried anything innovative or to re-brand or do anything different.’
The Auditor General raised red flags on payment of millions of shillings irregularly paid to Kibe as subsistence allowance for several months raising serious queries on the agency’s spending and the director general’s overseas travels. Kibe clocked millions of frequent flier miles and in the process made a fortune in per diem payments over and above his own perks leading the Auditor General to question the deals.
Under his watch in 2019, tender scandal for Provision of Medical Insurance Cover For Staff (KCAA-019-2019-2020)
The letter dated 22nd November, 2019, adressed to the Manding Dorector of KCAA Gilbert Kibe, copied to Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Office of the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics & Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPOA), and Ministry of Transport.
“It has come to our attention that the procurement process on the referenced tender is a mockery of the bona fide gesture on the part of the majority of the bidders who diligently go about their businesses justly and in accordance with the laws of this land. More disturbing is the fact that the process has been under the supervision of one of the bidders thus further camouflaged by guising as an innocent participant in the process, whilst in cahoots with members of staff at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority with the intention, will or craft to lure other participants and the general public that the same is a free and fair process.
We are at pains to understand why the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority members of staff would elect to ignore the principles of our Constitution as espoused under Article 10 of the Constitution on good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability. Prior to the release of the tender document, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, an insurance agent affiliated to Jubilee Insurance Company , assisted in the drafting and finalization of the mandatory requirements listed on the published tender document. Resultantly, the tender document suits the interests of Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya, more particular as set out under requirement No. 13 of the Mandatory Requirements listed on the tender document. It is noteworthy that currently, only Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya meets the threshold, hence no real bidding.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority is an entity well bound by Article 73 of the Constitution which advances objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and in ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices. In blatant disrespect to these provision of the law, a meeting was held in November, 2019 at Panari Hotel along Mombasa Road, attended by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Human Resource Manager, Martin Kivui, representatives from Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited and the insurance company’s agent, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, among others. The subject of the meeting was proposition of a ‘kick-back’ amounting to Kshs. 48’000’000/- to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority officials should the tender be awarded to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited.
Further Section 44 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act prohibits an individual from receiving or soliciting or agreeing to receiving or soliciting a benefit borne out of a bidding exercise. Moreover, Section 46 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act cautions against a person using his office to improperly confer a benefit on himself or anyone else. In addition to these, Section 176 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act requires a person not to unduly influence or exert pressure on any member of an opening committee evaluation committee or on any employee or agent of a procuring entity to take a particular action which favours or tends to favour a particular tenderer, neither to inappropriately influence tender evaluations and not to commit a fraudulent act. In conclusion, Section 204B of the Insurance Act prohibits a licensed person from knowingly and willfully assisting, conspiring with, or urges any person to violate the law or for any person who due to such assistance, conspiracy or urging by the said person, knowingly or willfully benefits from the proceeds derived from the use of fraud.
Based on these happenings and the further convoluted step by way of the addendum to the tender, it is our hope as law abiding citizens of this country, that your office would address the issue with the force that it deserves. The same is a clear violation of the Kenyan laws as the exercise is marred with corrupt practices by members who are entrusted to govern public funds. It is noteworthy that there is great effort by mandated bodies to rid the country of such practices and as such this exercise should be subjected to their scrutiny to prevent further graft.
We look forward to your urgent and timely action in order to arrest the fruition of these machinations.
Yours Sincerely,
Interested party.”
Good
Cyrus Oguna
1. In May 2019, former KDF spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna was appointed as the government spokesman replacing Eric Kiraithe who was transferred to the Airports security department. He’s performance in our scope iPad not been with marred and well in defending the government.
Major Gen. Badi
2. NMS Director General Badi ‘airman Badi’, whom prior to President’s appointment was a senior directing staff at (National Defense College) NDC. Before his elevation to the NDC portfolio, Badi was the Moi Air Base Commander. NMS has made tremendous strides in improving Nairobi and our rating is based in comparison to the previous regime of Sonko which was flooded with corruption accusations, baseless wrangles, cartel wars and minimal service delivery.
Others who served in the military and were appointed in various bodies include NTSA Chairman Lt Gen (Rtd) Jackson Waweru, Kenya Railways Corporation Chairman Gen (Rtd) Jeremiah Kianga, KPA Chairman Gen (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana, Kenya’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Rateng’ Odinga Ogega, who was by the time of his deployment early last year the Deputy Commandant (Civilian) at NDC and Director-General for Immigration Alexander Muteshi.
Spies
All good
Noordin Haji
1. In March 2018, the president appointed Noordin Haji as the Director of Public Prosecutions. Prior to his appointment, Haji worked at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) as the deputy director of investigations. Haji replaced Keriako Tobiko, a University of Cambridge law graduate who is now serving as the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Environment.
Under Haji, Kenya has seen prosecution of high voltage corruption cases, leaders brought to book as Migori Governor Obado who’s currently facing murder charges.
2.
Twalib Mbaruk
In August 2018, Twalib Mbarak who also served at the National Intelligence Service was appointed to head the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). EACC has also had its probably the best form under Mbaruk and we’ve seen the mighty being brought to books even if it’s not the best but the credits are given where due.
3. Alexander Muteshi, who earlier worked as the NIS director of counter-terrorism was also appointed as the director of Immigration Services in July 2018.
Muteshi replaced retired Major-General Gordon Kihaangwa who was appointed as the principal secretary in the Ministry of Defence inSeptember 2019.
The Kenya Women Microfinance Bank, formerly known as Kenya Women Finance Trust, was founded in 1981 to address the financial needs of women.
Unfortunately, through KWFT, clients have been left poorer than they were before they joined the bank against their (KWFT) vision, “To be the Women Financial Solutions Provider with a Difference.” KWFT, is a top tier Microfinance bank in Kenya with 45 branches out of 47 counties. KWFT boasts to be serving over 800,000 clients across the country with over 2800 dedicated employees.
KWFT styles itself as an unregulated bank, insurer and acts illegally as a Kangaroo court and a ruthless auctioneer. Unsuspecting poor women are induced to take loans with strange terms and sweet deals which often end in premium tears, depression and poverty.
KWFT mercy on assets recovery is none of their business – none of their language eithee. They sweep clean properties of loan defaulters without within a twinkle of an eye and without a blink and are always on time that immediately when 00:01hrs ticks, they’ll be right on your doorstep or homestead to sweep clean any valuable and invaluable assets even if grass is an asset to them. In a gated property, they demolish and carry it along even if it exceeds their aimed value. They’re considered thorough and a no go zone to those considering to acquire loans from them if there’s a possibility of defaulting.
They’ve no grace period. No remorse. Inconsiderate. With 80% of the clients in rural settlement, KWFT has deliberately trapped poor souls in rat race.
Victims of their wrath took to social media in a heated discussion and engagement expressing their experience, displeasures that isolates the bank from other banks on how they handle loan defaulters.
KWFT asset recovery actions discourages potential customers and as it stands now, interested clients should beware and reconsider other avenues, other banks since KWFT is a no go zone especially during this covid19 period where SMEs, people are struggling in a recovering economy, there’re lots of defaults in loan repayment but KWFT seems not to understand this language.
Kenya medical training college (KMTC) is undisputedly, undoubtedly, unarguably the best among the best medical training institute in Kenya and in Africa. KMTC rightfully boasts of producing fully baked, authentic and focused graduates into the healthcare field market and this have in a bigger proportion assisted in the realization of Universal Healthcare (UHC) in Kenya under ruling Jubilee party’s big four agenda.
Actually the institute has no worthy competitor in Kenya that even Bachelor degree graduates humble themselves before the kmtc Diploma graduates in relation to the depth of practice and knowledge Kmtc pumps into their students. The market favors them and employers prefer them for they have all it takes – fully baked.
But political forces have taken over the operations and decisions of the institution all the way from the board members and has corrupt the reservations, public respect and the system of the institution.
From the previous chairman of KMTC Prof Philip Kalokiwhose contract expired in April this year 2021, publicly admitted to be having political ambitions come next year 2022 general election. Gubernatorial position – Makueni county preferably on wiper ticket this time round. Prof Kaloki a one term MP for Kibwezi constituency before it was divided into Kibwezi East and West, Prof Kaloki lectured at Dallas Baptist University and failed to win in his attempt to clinch the gubernatorial position on a Jubilee ticket in previous election.
Kaloki used his position as the chairman of KMTC board of directors to impress his home county and double up his scorecard by constructing KMTC campuses in Nunguni in Kilungu, Kaiti constituency whose functions were only delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The embattled kmtc boss also opened another KMTC college in his home area ofEmali. All these in addition to existing Makueni KMTC in wote. He liased with politicians to do the same in their respective constituencies to increase their political scorecard.
Prof Kaloki successfully managed to hold hostage the entire KMTC college from the procurement process to employment; he dished out tenders to his tribesmen and buddies and employed people from his Kibwezi backyard, he managed to display and practice his illegalities with IMPUNITY.
Old organogram
He restructured KMTC’s organizational structure and controlled the board to oust CEO Prof Kiptoo whom they had personal wrangles which were marinated and circled around Kiptoo’s disinterest in his nepotism, tribalism and corruption. He abused power in office and has intergrity case, a matter before the Court.
Reformed Organogram
Every politician especially Members of Parliament are working their way to use every available resources at their disposal to grasp attention of the board to establish college branches in each of their constituencies to gain political score card points of NG-CDF development.
KMTC apparently has 71 campuses branches in Kenya with many more new ones yet to be launched under construction.
The rapid rate at which KMTC is opening and establishing its branch colleges in the eve to next year’s general election is alarming being that the board directors, members have expressed their low tone political interests. Its downplaying quality of the service. The hoodwinking picture to a regular thinker is development but the interior motive behind these move is political. Here’s why;
Since September 2017, kmtc have had reduced intake in numbers and many branch campuses across the country have failed to admit new comers till to date in almost all departments, one example is Medical Laboratory Science department who haven’t had admission in 5 of its contrywide campuses for the last 4 years. The admission energy has shifted to Certificate courses like Orthopaedic where admissions are overflowing and the market is already getting overflooded. The Orthopaedic department we’re told is the most underfunded with resources; inadequate lectures and teaching equipments -with available lecturers hired as external with some many campuses only having one permanent on permanent basis with student intake population hitting over hundreds. Monkey business.
The available campuses are recording and complaining of inadequate facilitation in terms of development funds allocation which is due to reduced intake that have been recorded in the past 3 years. Lots of funds have been channeled to new institutions they’re building all over the country in a super spreader exodus that’s alarming.
The existing old campuses are left in limbo as the funds are being chaneled to meet ambitions of the political class behind the wheel. It’s now Quantity to the board over Quality service.
There are complaints all over, from the students and also staffs of the institution as they’re the sufferers due to the bulls fight.
KMTC needs to get back on its steady-healthy form, KMTC is limping and simping, KMTC need to value quality over quantity.
Only Increase the campuses with an aim lower the college fees and increase the quality service of the available properties, staffs and subordinate staff. Increase the campuses and increase lecturers, if you cant afford qualified lecturers in terms of numbers then seize the exercise of expansion. Quality over Quantity is the core value or else you’ll cripple.
Increasing campuses in every village now to increase your income in fees and flooding graduates to the overflooded field market is like a monkey business. It’s like supermarket business being done but in denial – by same monkeys and just different forests.
KMTC board must re-asses itself and value quality over quantity then have limit for quantity.
Corporate fraud has always been the biggest shareholder in driving force to corruption in Kenya. Jubilee Insurance has spread its branches in all state parastatals and has been linked to a number of corporate fraud, that have been linked to the deputy president money-laundering sources that gases up his tanga tanga campaigns.
Jubilee Insurance company now Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Co has been directly contacting state agencies in which tender documents are prepared in favour of them. Underwriters trying to compete with them walks on a thin rope and find it next to impossible to win the tenders because usually mandatory requirements and the scope highly favour them being that they’ve the financial muscle to manipulate the authorities.
The market field hasn’t been equally leveled and Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 has always been contravened in their favour whenever they are involved.
Most of those who understand the system, would agree with me that Corporates are the financiers of the law makers- Politicians, a mutual friendship to create connection to win state tenders, get state immunity and engage in money laundering business with the protection from the government machineries and push legislators whom they sponsor to ammend or table bills to make laws in their favor and dodge being summoned for questionings.
The decision that was made to greenlight German corporate giant Allianz to acquire Jubilee holding’s shares was a snitchy move to try refurbish the sucking public image of Jubilee company.
The transaction was Allianz’s second direct investment in the country, after establishing Allianz Insurance Company of Kenya Limited as a greenfield operation in 2014. Jubilee would continue to hold significant minority stakes in each of the operating subsidiaries, which are estimated to account for 12.3 per cent of Jubilee Holding’s consolidated net assets worth Shs1.1 trillion as at June 2021.
Global insurer and asset managers–Allianz has become the majority shareholder in Jubilee General Insurance Limited in Kenya. This follows the acquisition of a 66 per cent stake in the company, representing 1,522,622 ordinary shares, from Jubilee Holdings Limited (JHL), East Africa’s largest insurance group who are retaining a 34 per cent shareholding in the company.
The acquisition follows the execution of an agreement signed on September 29, 2020, whereby Allianz agreed to acquire the majority shareholding in the short-term general (property and casualty) insurance business operations of JHL in five countries in Africa. These are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Mauritius.
Its CEO
Jubilee Holdings Limited (JHL) announced the appointment of Dr. Julius Kipng’etich as its Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in January 2018 after intense lobbying, from the Deputy President William Ruto’s office.
Having worked at the KWS, Julius Kipng’etich, together with some crooked KWS officials, manipulated the Ksh. 324 Million KWS Medical Insurance Tender that had to be reviewed by thePPRA as it was marinated with fraud and would have brewed public outrage or authorities (EACC, DCI, AG) attention.
There was a hearing on the KWS tender saga on the 10th of September 2019 by the PPRA but as usual it was just for formality.
Julius Kipngetich, deputy president William Ruto’s ally has been heard on many occasions boasting of being immortal, considering his network with office of the Deputy President.
Recently, KNH Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services scandal.
Ambrose Kinuthia, the founder of Infinity Insurance Agency blew a whistle over KNH tender process which Jubilee company participated and mysteriously won under unclear legal circumstances but clear illegal circumstances.
He says, “It’s in the public domain that KNH bosses have assured the agent and the underwriter who was awarded the Life Insurance business that they will handle PPRB staff and that no complaint will be successful. As of now, we are aware that CIC Life Assurance Co. Ltd have already challenged the procurement process with PPRA/Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) and we are equally aware that KNH bosses who have their cuts already negotiated and assured are working day and night to influence the decision of the Review board, and that they are rushing to sign the contracts so that payment can be done urgently even as complaints are put every day.”
Two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business were deliberately introduced in the tender document for this year in a bid to favour one underwriter, who is Jubilee Insurance Company who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender.
Mr Kinuthia had written the following email to Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPRB).
“Attention
DIRECTOR,
PPRA & PPRB
We report to you the above subject matter whereby KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) advertised for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022 on 27th May 2021 that closed on 08/06/2021.
We noted that two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business were intentionally introduced in the tender document for this year so as to only allow one underwriter, who is the only one who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender.
The items are:
1. Preliminary criteria no. 12 , The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) and,
2. Preliminary criteria no. 13 life underwriters must have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million for the year 2020.
The item of profitability coupled with Gross premium of Kshs. 500 Million were put as mandatory in the tender document to lock out all other Life business underwriters and only allow Jubilee Life assurance Ltd win the tender.
Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement only if the person satisfies the following criteria:
(a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act; (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices.
The two are unlawful and contravene the provisions of all the procurement, public finance and insurance laws. Eligibility of tenders is clearly and precisely outlined in the above mentioned section 55 of the procurement Act.
We would also want to bring to your attention that the same issues were raised by the KNH Tender Evaluation Committee who noticed the weirdness of their inclusion into the tender document. The committee would immediately write to the Head of Procurement requesting for guidance on how to handle them since they were very subjective and locked out all the other bidders in the Life business.
The issues raised by the evaluation committee were not responded to but instead the committee was silenced and assured of their share. Other members of the committee who tried to enquire further were intimidated and blackmailed. It’s also worth noting that we, and other insurance stakeholders raised these issues way before the tender closed.
Underwriters, also, some of whom participated and others who chose not to participate in the tender, also raised issues both in soft and in print. All those issues and queries raised were ignored and went unanswered. Negligence and lack of professionalism at the highest.
As at now, the tender has already been awarded and KNH chose to communicate to all other bidders who participated and leave out the current service provider so that they may NOT know the results and therefore fail to challenge the procurement process with the Procurement Review Board: the window of which expires tomorrow 28/06/2021.
The issues of negligence highlighted are so unfortunate and we call upon the authority and all other regulatory bodies to take the matter seriously and deal with the scam once and for all.
In August 2020, The Thirdway Alliance party suspended its party leader Dr. Ekuru Aukot over financial impropriety and lack of transparency to party members.
Aukot’s fate was decided by a resolution made by National Executive Committee (NEC) following a meeting held at the party’s headquarters.
During the meeting, NEC considered complaints raised against Aukot by party members, including self-enrichment, non-accountability and lack of transparency.
Aukot was also claimed to have assaulted his deputy Dr. Angela Mwikalio using crude words on record.
He was also accused of defying a court order in a children’s case, hence violating Chapter Six of the Constitution of Kenya.
The party’s NEC suspended Aukot indefinitely and barred him from representing or transacting any business on behalf of the party.
Prior to his suspension, three officials of the Thirdway Alliance moved to court seeking orders to stop party leader Ekuro Aukot from proceeding with his relaunched Punguza Mizigo initiative to amend the Constitution.
Thirdway Alliance deputy party leader Angela Mwikali, deputy secretary general Phelister Wakesho and Hilda Gachahi, who chairs the national women’s caucus, also accused Aukot of running away from financial accountability.
They claimed that Aukot never disclosed how much was raised during the first initiative and from what sources was the party able to finance the process apart from donations and contributions from well wishers.
These circumstances clearly illustrated his thirst for money through ‘acfivist’ initiative in the name of Punguza Mizigo.
Few months after suspension, broke Ekuru Aukot in November 2020, sold a car registration plate number KBL 502B to one Kamau Njoroge. ‘Punguza Mizigo’ activist Ekuru Aukot later reported the vehicle stolen and Mr Njoroge was summoned by police to appear before the DCIO where the vehicle was forcefully taken from him. Four days later, the said vehicle was given back to Ekuru Aukot.
Consequently, Mr Njoroge made a report at Muthangari Police station on how Dr. Ekuru Aukot had obtained money from him in the pretext of selling the vehicle to him but had refused to transfer and/or facilitate the transfer and now had colluded with officers at Kabete Police Station to defraud him of both his money and the car, wherein he was issued with O.B. No. 26/08/11/2020.
Despite the police asking him to come with witnesses, provide documentations, and other necessary things to prove his case, many months later, nothing has been done.
Mr Njoroge has since written to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution on the criminal conduct of Dr Ekuru Aukot.
“We contend that the actions or conduct by Dr. Ekuru Aukot amount to a criminal offence under Section 313 of the Penal Code and that the Police’s actions this far are wanting and conduct unbecoming, to say the least. As such, we write to request you to call for the file and take the necessary action to protect our client’s rights which are being trampled upon. It is noteworthy to state that justice delayed is justice denied.”, Mr Njoroge through his lawyer Saluny Adocates LLP said.
The above letter was copied to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and is on record.
Wash wash business makes Ekuru Aukot officially “Ja-pap” and it always end in premium tears.
Receiving your Civil service Retirement pension money in Kenya has always been ‘do me I do you’ business, ‘scratch my back I scratch your back’ business – of which many retirees who don’t play along with the cards- involuntarily sentence themselves to death by a thousand cuts, creeping normalcy, uninteresting end, cut-by-cut torture.
It’s always a lonely and depressing period for our old and Hypertensive vulnerable Mums, Dads, Grandparents, Relatives and Friends – that after decades of service, you have to wait for years and years begging for help, being fed by those whom used to look up-to you as the sole breadwinner for financial support, and the failed bitter surrounding society that always waited for their downfall to drag them along together, plunge together into financial instability and drown into poverty.
If you thinking about “they’d have invested when they were earning” you’re just damn right but have a look at your five fingers and think of what they remind you about life.
Some of these vulnerable retirees spent all their earnings educating those close to them or some used all they had to settle hospital bills for their loved ones or any eventualities and unluckily had none to save except the pensiongovernment used to deduct from their salaries.
The Treasury, Pension department based at Bima House Harambee Avenue has so much innocent blood in their hands for the death of many retirees who’ve been tortured mentally, plunging them into depression and as a result strokes, heart attacks and death – have been tremendously recorded out of negligence of the department.
The back door business of exploitation to catalyse the process for the cooperating few has become to much bias.
Like the Pyramid scheme, to make your way to the top where your money is stocked, you must bribe your way through a stair case of workers in the department to clear your application papers for review after several review and then be disbursed to – your funds.
Some are demanded to pay bribes as much as Ksh100K as downpayment and a similar amount on recieving his/her pension money to wind up the deal and those who can’t afford have to wait the ‘legal’ process not less than five years. The slow death by a thousand cuts – leng t’che.
Statistically only 60-70% survives the long wait. Others perish along the way out of hunger, suicide, stroke as a result of depression, hypertension, heart attack and other money related issues.
Pension department Director Michael Kagika, a stone faced man seems to have been inconsiderate of all these. When money is released, it’s paid to ghost retirees and active civil servants as the real retirees languish into poverty, street begging life.
In 2019, after audit of the department by then Auditor General Ouko – a mega scandal unearthed. The State paid out Sh67.9 billion as pension to people who were not entitled to receive the cash, and others whose identities could not be verified.
The Treasury, without explanation, paid Sh1.6 billion to 962 people before their exit dates from public service even as thousands of workers who retired years earlier languished at home waiting for the processing of their retirement benefits.
Other workers, whose terms of employment were not permanent and pensionable, pocketed Sh492 million without any valid reasons being offered.
In another case, 349 people were irregularly enrolled in the pension system and paid Sh556 million. The largest chunk of the money – Sh44 billion – was paid to claimants with irregular identities or who lacked personal identification numbers.
Another Sh21 billion was anonymously paid out to claimants with shared bank accounts while Sh152 million was wired to people with shared identity card numbers.
An illustration of a process that’s always bangled with irregularities, looting spree at the expense of depressed beneficiaries. They always open doors for strangers into the farm to reap what they didn’t sow – literally their cronies.
The Pension department at the Treasury has been unethical, uncouth, unreliable and in corrupt state.
Teachers have been the most hard hit and falls victim quite often. The stinking system in the Treasury, makes them mentally sink into depression when they think of their ‘miserable’ lives after retirement without payslips and when they face the reality – they dont survive for too long. The bitter truth.
Death is one kind of fear that we as human beings have no control over hence we just have to accept any eventuality but there are causes of death that we can control. For example, we all know how Covid19 kills and we know the cause – pathogenesis of the virus and we prevent the cause by putting on face masks, sanitizing and keeping social distance. We know that cause of death for many retirees is money related and pension agony – meaning we’ve control over the cause of death by the Pension department paying on time, being ethical, maintaining integrity. As simple as that. But negligence and corruption rules that empire.
Michael Kagika, Director at Pension Department.
The normalcy of this practice in this department is unforgivable. Sounding a warning to the culprits from the Director Michael Kagika that the little opportunity given to a monkey to wear clothes, doesn’t guarantee it to join the dining table and to all other junior workers on looting spree in the department don’t forget life is a vicious cycle and the same heat that softens potatoes, hardens eggs.
You declared war on our loved ones by denying them what’s rightfully theirs and instead robbing them their lives, families out of greed hoping to find happiness in looting their money, – you all dialed the wrong number. You only find happiness when you find your righteous purpose in life, of which ought to be service delivery and once your purpose is to loot vulnerable’s pension money, neither peace nor happiness comes along with that. You all mistaken.
Before nature comes for you, Kenya insights will rip you all one by one. The vicious cycle begins. Kenya insights welcomes any valuable information over past worse/worst encounter within the pension house- bribery events or any other form of harassment to share through email linked herein.
