A firm owned by rebel ODM MP Ababu Namwamba’s cousin brother was single sourced for provision of consultancy service for design and structural engineering of the collapsed Ksh 1.2 billion Sigiri Bridge.
One Oliver Khabure, a civil engineer and proprietor of Interphase Consultants, was single sourced to provide structural engineering consultancy services and was paid hundreds of millions of shillings to design the bridge that has since collapsed after reportedly consuming more than a billion shillings in tax payer funds.
Khabure is Ababu’s cousin and it is through Interphase Consultants that Ababu is believed to have earned his own kickbacks arising out of the project which President Uhuru put on his hands to ‘supervise’ and use to gain political mileage against ODM and it’s leader Raila Odinga.
Sources intimate that the Mombasa based Khabure was used as front for Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba who presented his name to state House as one of the contractors and eventually tied him up to the project engineers the Chinese Overseas Group of Engineering Company (COVEC) when he hosted them at his Continental House office in mid 2015 when as PAC Chairman he started sanitizing Jubilee corruption and gravitating toward the government side. It was one of the rare occasions where a member of parliament is seen openly socializing with a contractor who is working for the national government.
Being the structural designer of bridge, Khabure directly bears responsibility for the embarassing and expensive collapse of the bridge which is likely the result of poor or inadequate construction material with bulk of funds being used to pay kickbacks to Ababu Namwamba as a easy way of funding his Labour Party to rival ODM in Budalangi and Busia.
An official government statement released by English John Mosonik purported to shift blame to COVEC but industry sources insisted contractors follow drawings and BQs prepared by in the initial stage by design Consultants. It follows therefore that any blame on the structural collapse should be shouldered 100% by Mr. Khabure.
Today Ababu Namwamba troubles have escalated after having been ejected in disgrace as PAC Chairman, ejected as ODM Secretary General and struggling for relevance with his Labour Party in Budalangi where has been mark-timing for one year supervising Sigiri Bridge construction.
