Sonko Worked With Ruto In The Sh20M Payout

An insurance company associated with Deputy President William Ruto is the latest to find itself entangled in a Ksh20 million lucrative garbage collection contract that Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko allegedly pocketed.

The governor was summoned by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) this week to give details on how Ksh20 million from some companies that were doing business with the Nairobi County government in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 financial years found its way into his account.

According to Nation, Amaco Insurance which is the insurance company associated with Deputy President William Ruto has had a running contract since 2013 to insure Nairobi County government vehicles. The same company has an ongoing three-year contract with Arbab Auto Care Ltd, a garage on Kangundo Road that was signed in 2016. County government’s vehicles are taken for repairs here.

Sonko told EACC detectives that two months after getting into office, the Treasury released Ksh100 million to the county to pay Amaco for services rendered. Amaco then wired more than Sh20 million in bank transfers of Sh10.7 million, Sh7.5 million and Sh5.3 million to Arbab as part of their contract.

Sonko has insisted that the Sh20 million traced to his account by EACC  was from businesses he engaged in before he became the county chief. He claims any  money Mr Anthony Otieno Ombok (owner of Arbab) may have sent him was part-payment for a piece of land in Mavoko, which he sold to him in early 2017. He bought the land from former Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopha Mailu.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives claim that some of the firms that won the Sh357 million tender wired more than Sh20 million to Sonko’s bank accounts.

Sonko is also under investigation for allegedly receiving a bribe from a garbage collection company called Hardi Enterprises Ltd, which is owned by city businessman Anthony Mwaura. The businessman is said to have deposited deposited Sh500,000 to the governor’s account on one occasion and another Sh1 million on another from his personal account.

The governor who seems to have all the answers claims the businessman who also owns a piping company bought land from him for a water project since it cut through a piece of land he owned in Kwale. However, “Coincidentally”  Hardi Enterprises was among the companies awarded the garbage collection tender.

The red flag over the garbage collection tender was first raised by the Nairobi County Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee in 2018, revealing Ksh162 million that City Hall’s Environment Department could not account for.

Mr Sonko blamed people in his office, whom he did not name, for making the payments behind his back.