Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Services (KUCCPS), a state cooperation responsible for the placing of government sponsored students to universities and colleges. KUCCPS disseminating information on available programmes, costs and areas of study as prioritized by the government.
But this establishment with John Muraguri as the chief executive officer is facing a serious management crisis with DCI detectives pitching tent at their offices. The sleuths are digging every crate to unearth how Marugi and his team are breaking procurement laws when awarding KUCCPS tenders.
He brags of his state house connections and people in power, his long stay at the helm of the parastatal since 2013 is also playing to his advantage.
Muraguri is manipulating board directors, and he is extra bossy on many senior and junior staffers at the organization. This is how he influences how lucrative tenders are awarded.
Many dailies and blogs have reported about Muraguri siphoning funds from the organization with every pipe, to play in the billionaire league of his peers back at home, Murang’a.
The presence of the detectives at his offices is a confirmation. Maraguri is under investigations but still surviving with through links he has at the EACC offices at the Integrity Center and cordial relationship he enjoys with Jasper Mbiuki.
Mr. Mbiuki is the secretary of the Legislative Affairs and Regulatory Compliance in the office of the President. He has also worked as legal secretary of dissolved TNA party, his roots at the house on the hill are deeper.
Success runs deep across his family, his brother, Kennedy Mbiuki, is the founder of Zetech University located in Ruiru, along Thika Road.
Zetech is a private institution founded in 1999, it began as college but grew very fast and ‘graduated’ to a University in the Jubilee regime.
The recent, 2020/21 placements by KUCCPS under Muraguri awarded Zetech students in thousands under government sponsorship.
Muraguri gave Zetech 1,943 students. That means money in the bank for Kennedy Mbiuki and fat kickbacks for Muraguri. The circle extends further with allegations that most of Zetech directors are gearing up to bankroll DP Ruto’s campaigns in 2022.
But Maraguri is not deeply connected to the core of the power because his cronies bow to DP William Ruto who has been pushed to the periphery, not just in the two parliaments but also in the Jubilee party with his sycophants fired from leadership.
Dp Ruto’s influence wasn’t enough to help Jasper Mbiuki’s ego rise to the Solicitor General level. President Kenyatta chose Ken Ogeto, a mister level head.
He is running out choices though, he needed insulation from the political class by routing for BBI but BBI is now in it’s death bed.
Pro. George Magoha sat the KUCCPS board before moving to the Kenya National Examination Council and to his current position, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education.
Maraguri claims he lobbied for the no-nonse CS to rise that level so he expects insulation as a favour from Magoha.
What brings him to chopping board is the controversial tender to the KONVERGENZ Solution. It was rejected upon inspection by the Inspection and Acceptance Committee because it not meet the specifications but Muraguri pushed his boys to force it through.
He went authorising the pay of Sh13, 980,041 to the said company despite the systems editor writing to the internal auditor Faith Mwasya over the irregularities. Mwasya colludes with Muraguri in shoddy deals so she also ignored the audit warning.
The chief executive then went on to instruct Erick Asande who leads the finance office to make the payment. Asande and Mwasya are Muraguri loyalties who also break laws and siphon funds through proxy companies.
The squad also has Dennis Rama, the acting ICT manager who is aiding procurement malpractice to be fully confirmed for the position.
KONVERGENZ has applied for another tender to supply telephone system and equipment, and they are at an advanced stage of bagging it. The controversial company has been supplying stuff without meeting KUCCPS specifications or the ordered quantity.
KONVERGENZ was paid Sh17 million to supply telephone system and equipment, instead of 12 components the rogue supplier delivered 4.
Sources privy to the man reveal that his son works at the firm and Muraguri himself is a shareholder, raising concerns over conflict of interest.
He even tried to block the investigators from examining the tender documents claiming they are confidential and needed specifications.
But when the sleuths wrote back, with specifications and set deadlines, Muraguri complied. Now his finance manager, John Kimani is frequenting DCI headquarters to ‘quel thing’ despite members of his staff recording statements with the DCI detectives.
KONVERGENZ network solutions is located at the Fourth Avenue Tower Nairobi, Upper Hill area, the company has also been accused of attempting evade tax by Kenya Revenue Authority.
The tax man has accused the company of undervaluing in it’s dealings with KUCCPS. It’s paperwork has one Abdullahi Abdul Sheikh the founder and CEO of KONVERGENZ network, Ian Chomba as the marketing executive among others but mostly muslim names.
It has also done business with Kenya Power when it supplied One-Time Password (OTP) authenticator for use with corporation VPN.
