Former Kenya Power Managing Director Ben Chumo on Monday appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Finance for grilling over his bid to succeed Sarah Serem and become the chairman of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Chumo had a rough time in answering corruption-related questions from Nyali MP Mohammed Ali.
Chumo, the current CEO Ken Tarus and other top Kenya Power managers are facing corruption allegations linked to the company. They allegedly entered into an illegal contract with a private firm for the supply of transformers, costing the taxpayer billions of shillings.
The officials are out on cash bail of Sh1 million.
"Mr. Chumo I can see that you are a presidential nominee to the position of SRC chairmanship and you have been to Kenya Power Compnay, the Company that is said to have fleeced Kenyans a lot of money through corruption. You are in court on corruption charges and you have the full guts to be in front of us to demand the SRC job and yet you have not settled your issues in court,” said Ali, who was cut short by a fellow MP.
“Mheshimiwa Ali, you see this is a House of order and we must be orderly and we must ask questions according to our Standing Orders,” a fellow MP told him.
In response, Chumo told the committee the transformers in question were procured in 2011/2012 when he was in the company's Human Resource Department and not in the CEO position.
“I became the CEO of Kenya Power in 2013 and I was not even in the procurement committee during that time. This matter has challenges but I am not casting aspersions about procurement of transformers at KPLC in 2011/12,” he said.