Bahati Mp Irene Njoki Mrembo’s past at the Ministry of Transport is coming back to haunt her as the government embarks on cleaning up agencies at the ministry which have been plugged with corruption for decades.
This is after it emerged that Njoki’s sister was one of the biggest tenderpreneurs at the Roads ministry when the first time MP was a personal assistant to former cabinet secretary James Macharia.
President William Ruto’s recent demand for the sacking of a roads official whom he described as corrupt to the core has lifted a can of worms and a whirlwind that is likely to suck in those who were running affairs at the ministry.
“There was one lady in one of the Roads department, corrupt to the core, to the extent that she could not be transferred by anybody, even by the Minister, because if she was transferred she would go to court, buy the court process and make sure that she is returned, that is the kind of chronic that corruption has taken us,” Ruto said.
“I hope Kipchumba Murkomen, I hope that lady no longer works for the government of Kenya. We cannot have such. There are people who have made government offices their private property,” he added.
In response, Murkomen confirmed last week on Tuesday that the alleged corrupt lady was dismissed on May 29, 2023.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the officer mentioned by HE President Ruto was dismissed from the government agency on May 29, 2023, after the due process was followed,” Murkomen said.
Although both Murkomen and the president did not identify the woman in question, we have established that were referring to former Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) Procurement Manager Margaret Wanja Muthui.
Muthui who is currently fighting to regain control of her properties worth Sh264 million which were frozen by the state in 2021 was this year fired from KERRA after fighting tooth and nail to prevent her transfer from the institution through the courts.
Among her properties that have been frozen are 11 apartments that she bought in cash when Kenya was doing away with the old currency notes in 2019. She is also said to have acquired another 12 houses in Ruaka, Kiambu during the same period.
Before she was eventually fired from the roads ministry, Muthui had worked for KERRA’s procurement department in various roles since 2009. She was transferred in 2017 to the Performance Management and Coordination under the presidency but made a comeback barely two weeks later after someone high up intervened.
While it is not questionable on how Muthui may have made her wealth, what is raising eyebrows is a complex chain of companies that benefitted greatly from tenders at the time she was raking up properties worth hundreds of millions
A leaked investigation document has identified nine companies that are interconnected with each other that made Sh292 million from KERRA between 2019 and 2021.
Taras Investments made Sh61.9 million during that period, Uniford Limited (Sh60.6 million), Zedm Ventures (29.8 million), Mago Trends (Sh 12.9 million), Nilcon Construction (Sh26.3 million), Unigeer Construction (60.8 million), Jage Ventures (Sh53 million) and Sasu Contractors (Sh10.8 million).
While it is completely normal for road contractors to be paid such amounts, what is raising eyebrows is the fact that all these companies were making huge cash transfers to Taras Merchants Limited immediately after money hit their accounts.
Like for example, out of the Sh29 million that Zedm Merchants received from KERRA, Sh8.09 was transferred to Taras. Margos on the other hand transferred Sh3.7 million in tranches of Sh922,307 four times between June 26, 2020 and July 1 of the same year. On the other hand, Sasu contractors transferred a total of Sh3.23 million in different tranches.
Additionally, most of these companies have overlapping ownership with the directors of Taras Merchants. And when you dig deeper, the owners of Taras appear to have had deep tentacles in the Jubilee government which was ousted from power in last year’s elections.
So influential was Taras that it gagged all mainstream media houses in April 2021 from publishing any stories about its dealings with KERRA. This is after its owners found out that journalists had established that it was not only involved with KERRA but its owners were also involved in the Sh5 billion Afya House scandal early on during the Jubilee administration in 2015.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. Jubilee is not in power and whatever protection Taras had has disappeared leaving the company at the mercy of investigators.
Taras is owned by Naomi Wanjiku Mirithi, Caroline Wahito Wachu, Brenda Wangui Garete and Eric Ndegwa Wachira. Mr Ndegwa is also the sole proprietor of Uniford Limited and a director at Unigeer Construction Limited.
Naomi Wanjiku Mirithi is also a director at Estama Investments, which is infamous for the Afya House Scandal where billions meant for maternity programs for poor women were rerouted and used to purchase medical containers that became white elephants.
Mirithi is Bahati MP Irene Njoki Mrembo’s sister. Njoki, a novice in politics trounced veteran politician Kimani Ngunjiri after garnering 34,308 votes against his 26,809 during last year’s elections. She vied on a Jubilee ticket.
Authorities are now keen to know if Njoki used her position at the Transport and Health Ministries in order to enable her sister’s companies to get the questionable tenders and who else may have benefited.
Before venturing into politics, Njoki was a long-time personal assistant to former Cabinet Secretary James Macharia. She worked as Macharia’s aide at NIC Bank and the Ministries of Transport and Health.
It was during Macharia’s time at the Health Ministry that the Afya House scandal took place. When he was moved to the Transport Ministry he moved with Njoki too. Their working relationship however ended last year when the Jubilee administration’s time in power came to an end.