Kenya Arrests 2 Top Officials on Corruption Charges Over $3 Billion Railway

[Geza Ulole]

Kenya Arrests 2 Top Officials on Corruption Charges Over $3 Billion Railway

Image
A train leaving Mombasa, Kenya, in 2017. The new line connecting Mombasa and the capital, Nairobi, was financed by China.CreditTony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Reuters
Aug. 11, 2018

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Kenyan authorities have arrested the chairman of the agency that manages public land and the boss of the state railway on suspicion of corruption over land allocation for the new $3 billion flagship Nairobi-Mombasa railway.

The line connecting Nairobi, the capital, with East Africa’s main port was financed by China and is one of the biggest infrastructure projects of President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose government began an anticorruption drive this year.

The public prosecutor, Noordin Mohamed Haji, ordered the arrests and said in a statement that he was preparing to charge the officials.

Kenya inaugurated the $3 billion railway last year. No Chinese companies or individuals were named in the prosecutor’s statement.
ADVERTISEMENT

The chairman of National Land Commission, Mohammed Abdalla Swazuri, was one of 18 officials, businesspeople and companies named in a list of arrests posted on Saturday on the Twitter feed of the prosecutor’s office. The managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation, Atanas Kariuki Maina, was also arrested.

Opposition leaders and Kenyan economists have criticized the railway for increasing the country’s debt burden, which the International Monetary Fund estimated at 54 percent to 55 percent of economic output in the 2017-18 fiscal year.

You have 4 free articles remaining.
Subscribe to The Times
The investigation that led to the arrests centers on allegations that officials had siphoned off taxpayer money through phony compensation claims for land used for the railway, the anticorruption agency said in a statement. It did not say who made the accusations.

Analysts say that Kenya, East Africa’s richest economy per capita, loses a significant percentage of its annual gross domestic product to corruption and that it is hard to do business without paying bribes.

Representatives for Mr. Swazuri and Mr. Maina could not be immediately reached for comment.

Kenya has been hit this year by a number of scandals related to the alleged theft of millions of dollars by officials from government bodies. Mr. Haji, appointed by Mr. Kenyatta this year, is bringing charges against dozens of state officials and businesspeople.

Kenya Arrests 2 Top Officials on Corruption Charges Over $3 Billion Railway

 

[kirk git]

I think many people in uhuru government took kickbacks from Chinese.

Just few ones have been sacrificed.

 

[eliakeem]

Nchi ya madili.
Nchi inaliwa na kina Kenyatta. JUBILEE wanapiga hela kama walipanda vile.

 

[mwaswast]

The government is doing well to fight graft and it is our prayer as Kenyans to have these people vindicated and sent away behind bars. Sasa pia Magufuli awakamate wale wa 1.5 trillion ama vipi Geza Ulole?

 

[Bantugbro]

USD 3 Billion!

Na SGR yote yaani MBS to NAI ime-cost tax payers almost the same amount, basi hii kesi i treasonous, ni lazima wale shaba hao jamaa...

Kenya ni hatari kwa big corruption

 

[Depay]

For once I can see you have some matter in between your ears.... In btw have you ever asked yourself why you are starting many unnecessary and hot air threads. JF is Geza if not Geza is JF. Haki mnafanana tu na Ndii. .... Some of those human beings wenye Wanaenda choo kwa suruali

 

[REDEEMER.]

For once I can see you have some matter in between your ears.... In btw have you ever asked yourself why you are starting many unnecessary and hot air threads. JF is Geza if not Geza is JF. Haki mnafanana tu na Ndii. .... Some of those human beings wenye Wanaenda choo kwa suruali

The government is doing well to fight graft and it is our prayer as Kenyans to have these people vindicated and sent away behind bars. Sasa pia Magufuli awakamate wale wa 1.5 trillion ama vipi Geza Ulole?

At last minute your government notch the deal is rotten and theft waswahili wanasema wali wa kushiba unaonekana kwanzia kwenye sahani kabla ya kufika tumboni

Though hii ni Uhuru drama in order to catch up with the Eastern Africa Superior na kujaribu kuwatuliza wakenya lakini kama ni kupigwa mlishapigwa don't expect your seasoned SGR to be a brand new.

By the way hivi electrification ilifia wapi?

 

[mwaswast]

At last minute your government notch the deal is rotten and theft waswahili wanasema wali wa kushiba unaonekana kwanzia kwenye sahani kabla ya kufika tumboni

Though hii ni Uhuru drama in order to catch up with the Eastern Africa Superior na kujaribu kuwatuliza wakenya lakini kama ni kupigwa mlishapigwa don't expect your seasoned SGR to be a brand new.

By the way hivi electrification ilifia wapi?

Hapa tunawakamata mabig fish sio pushups jukuani kuwafurahisha maskini wa vijiweni.

Electrification so far tupo kwenye 2500MW, nasikia nyinyi bado hamjazalisha zaidi ya 1350MW kwa population ya 60Million...you guys are a joke.

 

[Bottas]

USD 3 Billion!

Na SGR yote yaani MBS to NAI ime-cost tax payers almost the same amount, basi hii kesi i treasonous, ni lazima wale shaba hao jamaa...

Kenya ni hatari kwa big corruption

Walikuwa about $40mln kwa pesa ya land compesation ...

 

[BestOfMyKind]

Hapa tunawakamata mabig fish sio pushups jukuani kuwafurahisha maskini wa vijiweni.

Electrification so far tupo kwenye 2500MW, nasikia nyinyi bado hamjazalisha zaidi ya 1350MW kwa population ya 60Million...you guys are a joke.

Made up, fake, not true, propaganda. When will you stop? In 2011 we had 1500MW, sasa how is that after 7 years we have 1350MW? With the Stiegler's Gorge coming up, we'll trump EA.

 

[1academ]

Hapa tunawakamata mabig fish sio pushups jukuani kuwafurahisha maskini wa vijiweni.

Electrification so far tupo kwenye 2500MW, nasikia nyinyi bado hamjazalisha zaidi ya 1350MW kwa population ya 60Million...you guys are a joke.

treni za sgr zitaenda kwa umeme upi? wa ushuuuzi au?

 

[Castr]

Wang'ang'anieni hao mbuzi

 

[Lewis254]

way to go.
wakamatwe, wafungwe kwenye mti, kisha wamiminiwe risasi mbele ya umati.
kudos!

 

[Jini Kisiranii]

Business Exchange Zone
Kama unahitaji huduma ama bidhaa yoyote, hapa ndio mahali sahihi na salama kwa ajili yako, sisi tunakukutanisha na wateja, wafanya biashara mbalimbali.
ANGALIZO. Malipo ya Huduma au Bidhaa zozote yatakayofanyika nje ya mfumo wetu hatutahusika nayo.
Business Exchange Zone

 

[mwaswast]

Made up, fake, not true, propaganda. When will you stop? In 2011 we had 1500MW, sasa how is that after 7 years we have 1350MW? With the Stiegler's Gorge coming up, we'll trump EA.

Hata wewe unajua 1350MW ni kweli hebu muulize joto la jiwe ama geza.

treni za sgr zitaenda kwa umeme upi? wa ushuuuzi au?

Kwani kuna treni ya umeme Tz? Hadithi za jukuani mwa siasa ziko popular sana na wana-vijiwe wengi haswa hapa Kenyan news. Nchi ya 60million holoi poloi itawezaje ku-electrify treni kama hata Dar yenyewe imewashinda?