Calls Mount For EACC To Probe Nyandarua Governor Badilisha Over Brazen Corruption Crippling the County

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is facing mounting pressure to launch a comprehensive investigation into the Nyandarua county government after residents filed a detailed petition accusing Governor Moses Kiarie Badilisha of running a sophisticated looting cartel that has brought the county to the edge of financial ruin.

The petition, addressed to EACC chief executive Abdi Mohamud, contains explosive allegations of nepotism, conflict of interest, ghost payments and the systematic recycling of old procurement files to generate fraudulent new payments, with the roads department described as the principal conduit of graft.

The residents allege that in a single payment cycle in June 2025, thirteen firms shared a cumulative Sh40 million for work never done.

The firms named are Francsoft Constructions, Cuza Ways, Zecko, Moellux, Peonim, Wikagi Contractors and Firm Machinery, Denfraj Building Contractors, Tamena Enterprises, Kester Construction, Chesuwa Africa, Gringo Ventures, Miwanjos and Zorlu Enterprise. The petition also claims that between May and June 2025, the same companies and others shared the lion’s share of a staggering Sh395,293,251 in county payments.

Most explosive of all is the allegation that Vijay Limited, which carries an Indian-sounding name but is allegedly owned by the governor’s son, was paid Sh22,857,860 for works not done. Residents say other firms allegedly linked to Badilisha’s relatives, friends and crooked ward representatives also collected tens of millions in fictitious payments during the same period.

This is not the first time the county has found itself at the centre of financial controversy. The Senate County Public Accounts Committee summoned Badilisha in early February this year after the county’s own financial statements showed pending bills of Sh5.1 billion against total revenue of Sh6.3 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. CPAC chairman Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang delivered an unsparing verdict during the session, declaring: “Nyandarua is technically insolvent.”

The governor disputed the Sh5.1 billion figure during the Senate session, insisting the actual pending bills stood at Sh1.4 billion and attributing the higher number to delayed salary disbursements that were later settled. But senators were unmoved, pointedly reminding Badilisha that the figures had appeared in financial statements prepared and submitted by his own administration.

The Senate’s interest in the county’s finances is not new. Back in October 2023, the Senate County Public Accounts Committee referred Nyandarua to the EACC for investigation over questionable expenditure of at least Sh785 million, covering unsupported hospital allocations of Sh275.9 million, Sh306.4 million in uncleared imprests, Sh30 million paid to a construction company without procurement records and Sh27.2 million spent on projects not included in the approved budget.

The residents’ petition goes beyond ghost payments. They accuse Badilisha of causing the county to lose over Sh3.4 million by leasing a Nairobi residence at Twiga Hill Park through his brother-in-law Bernard Mburu’s firm, Peeves Suppliers, using county resources to fund a private arrangement. They further allege that the governor’s hotel, Holiday Premier Hotels Limited, has been used to siphon funds since the day he was sworn in, with the hotel receiving Sh12 million for hosting county functions even before it had been prequalified as a county vendor.

Between May and June 2025 alone, the residents say Holiday Premier Hotels pocketed Sh3,978,300. They claim the governor deliberately steers all county functions to his Nakuru hotel, deliberately shutting out local hoteliers from county business.

The allegations do not end there. The petition claims Badilisha recently opened Erait Pension Hotel in Lodwar using county funds and expanded his private school, Erait Academy, to Lodwar using public resources. The governor is also accused of purchasing land in Narok which was registered under his wife’s name.

EACC’s own June 2025 quarterly report exposed a Nyandarua branding scandal in which a Sh13.5 million tender was allegedly fraudulently awarded to a company linked to a family member of a senior county official, adding yet another layer to the county’s deepening graft crisis.

The financial rot runs alongside a governance crisis that is now spilling into open warfare between the governor and elected representatives. Woman Representative Faith Gitau, a UDA colleague of the governor, has become his most vocal critic. She has publicly accused his administration of attempting to poach credit for milk coolers provided by the national government, going so far as to claim the county deployed goons to heckle her during a handover ceremony at Ol Joroorok stadium. She has also accused Badilisha of disconnecting water to the Mairo Inya public market serving 450 traders despite an earlier agreement that the county would foot those bills, and of failing to replace burnt-out floodlights that his predecessor had installed, allowing insecurity to fester in market centres.

Ol Kalou MP David Kiaraho has been equally damning, accusing the governor of falsely claiming credit for the construction of Mashujaa Hospital in Ol Kalou and the Ol Kalou stadium, both of which the MP says are national government projects being built by the Kenya Defence Forces. Kiaraho further dismissed Badilisha’s flagship Nyandarua University College as a “gift” from the national government approved through a gazette notice two years ago, not an achievement of the county administration.

The Mirangine MCA Samuel Mathu’s impeachment motion filed in November 2024 documented some of the most visceral accusations yet. Mathu claimed the governor habitually demanded a ten per cent kickback from county suppliers and service providers in exchange for payment, a practice that if true would constitute criminal extortion. The MCA also accused Badilisha of authorising payment to a company he had personally owned for a packhouse built in 2015 that had failed to meet Kenya Building Code and Standards and had never been certified for payment, doing so the moment he assumed the governorship.

Nyandarua Senator John Methu also took his battle to the High Court in April 2025, seeking to halt a Sh51 million payment to Kenya Alliance Insurance Limited, which he described as “a dirty scheme to misappropriate public funds” built on a mediation agreement he branded illegal and fraudulent. The court struck out his application on procedural grounds, but the episode further underlined the climate of suspicion surrounding county procurement.

Gitau has publicly hinted that she is considering a run for the governorship in 2027, a prospect that has sharpened the political battle and given the governor’s critics an incentive to keep the pressure relentless ahead of the election season. Disillusioned residents who voted overwhelmingly for Badilisha in 2022 say the UDA administration has not delivered on the sweeping promises that propelled him to power.

KEY FIGURES IN THE PETITION

Sh395,293,251 Total paid to firms between May and June 2025

Sh40m Paid to 13 firms for alleged ghost work in June 2025 alone

Sh22.8m Allegedly paid to Vijay Limited, said to be owned by governor’s son, for work not done

Sh5.1bn Pending bills at end of 2024/25 financial year; Senate CPAC declares county ‘technically insolvent’

Sh785m Questionable expenditure referred to EACC by Senate CPAC in 2023

Sh51m Insurance payment contested in court by Senator John Methu as fraudulent procurement