DCI boss George Kinoti and DPP Noordin Haji were, on Wednesday, accompanied by senior officials from the AG and EACC offices to Italy over recent dam sagas.
The top government sleuths took the trip in search of means that could finally lead to the prosecution of prominent persons implicated in the loss of at least Ksh21 billion, meant for the construction of two vital dams.
Haji and Kinoti, who arrived in Italy on Wednesday, are reported to have been armed with crucial evidence of the fraud, which they intended to present to the Italian authorities.
The team has planned a series of meetings with Italian officials to agree on how they can recover money meant for the stalled construction of Arror and Kimwarer dams.
“We remain positive that this could be the last step before seeing people taking EACC pleas headquarters in Nairobi,” declared Kinoti.
Haji and Kinoti’s top agenda is to convince the Italian government that they possess concrete evidence on fraud over the dams projects.
The evidence is likely to include a report from the Auditor General’s office that shows more than Ksh4 billion paid for the work cannot be accounted for.
This came after a day-long meeting that was held on Tuesday between the Italian ambassador to Kenya, Albert Piera, Kihara Kariuki and Twalib Mbarak at EACC headquarters.
Auditor General Edward Ouko also raised questions over the unsupported advance payment of Ksh4.2 billion, which was sourced from foreign borrowings and paid to Italian firm CMC Di Ravenna-Itinery JV, yet no physical work had been done on the ground.
The two dams are budgeted to cost Ksh65 billion. An advance payment of Ksh7.8 billion was paid out; Ksh4.3 billion for Arror and Ksh3.5 billion for Kimwarer.
Documents in investigators’ possession further showed an additional commitment fee of Ksh900 million, Ksh418 million for Kimwarer and Ksh490 million for Arror paid out to CMC Di Ravena.
Additionally, the Italian firm CMC Di Ravenna, which won tenders to build mega-dams in the Rift Valley worth more than Ksh63 billion, is under investigation for allegedly bribing senior government officials to secure the contracts.
Investigators handling the file insist that after examining documents obtained from the Treasury, Ksh20.9 billion has since been paid to the contractor for the two projects.
