The top management at the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) are embroiled in fresh power battles amid push by the new government to dismantle a ring of cartels looting with the director general, Mr. Philemon Kandie.
The fresh war began after KeRRA Kajiado regional director eng. Timothy Karanja returned to the agency’s head office at Barabara Plaza, a move which has fueled suspicion and growing internal tensions.
The warring factions now want the new Roads and Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen to launch a crackdown on the members of the cartel operating under the protection of Kandie, whose appointment was also illegal.
Kenyan Bulletin has established that Karanja was brought back to the head office as part of a plot to cover the looting that ostensibly happened place in Kajiado.
Karanja was colluding with one Esther Wanjiru Chege, a corrupt accountant at the KeRRA offices in Kajiado who has been on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s radar for years now. Mrs Chege abused her position to fraudulently acquire assets including millions of shillings and 13 parcels of land scattered across different towns Kenya including Kiambu, Nyandarua, Naivasha, Makueni and Kajiado.
In July 2022, EACC seized her 13 title deeds with an estimated value of over Sh100 million which are proceeds of corruption as she was interrogated over conflict of interests, embezzlement of public funds and having unexplained wealth.
EACC also obtained orders from the High Court in Machakos, to freeze Chege’s bank account until investigations were done.
“That an order to freeze for six months account in the name Esther Wanjiru Chege, held at Equity Bank, Ridgeways Branch be and is hereby granted pending further investigations and or orders,” the Court said.
Investigations further revealed that between January 2016- May 2022, Wanjiru Chege had transacted a total credit of Sh26,359,921 and her salary account at Equity Bank, Ridgeways Branch, Kiambu, had a balance of Sh3,295,271 which EACC also feared could be withdrawn and/or transferred anytime.
She was using firms registered through proxies to defraud the agency. The firms include M/s Rokays Enterprise Limited, registered by her partner, the Director of St. Sharon Secondary School in Nyandarua and M/s Reswan Enterprises Limited, which received Sh. 20 million from KeRRA and registered under James Chege Njoroge, brother to Chege.
Operations at KeRRA have slowed due to power wars since Kandie came in with his cartel in 2021 following the exit of Margret Wanja Muthui which he orchestrated. Philemon Kandie used his links with Gideon Moi who later reached out to NIS to help him uproot Margaret Wanja Muthui and execute his looting plans at will.
But he now remains an ‘unprotected’ man who can be uprooted anytime since Gideon Moi was beaten in the last elections and enjoys no close ties with the current administration.
