Some contractors offering services for the Nakuru County government have raised concerns over what they term as being exploited by county staff.
Contractors who spoke to our reporter said they are being asked for handouts by county ministers, chief officers, directors and other staff, especially in the finance and procurement departments.
They claimed that some members of the Nakuru County assembly demand at least five percent benefit off the price of any project before commencing work in the representative’s ward.
One contractor said they were agitated by the state of affairs and sent a delegation of about 10 representatives recently to see Governor Kinuthia Mbugua over this alleged chain of corruption, which they said makes them lose up to 40 per cent of their contractual payments.
“The first level of the gravy train is at the wards where MCAs demand five percent to allow you to start your approved project,” the contractor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
“The next level is from engineers led by the ones at the site and in charge of sub-counties straight to the county engineer then to directors and ministers.”
He added: “The governor received this information with shock and formed a team to investigate how rife this graft is in a bid to minimise, if not eliminate it”.
The contractors wondered why it is only in Nakuru of all Kenyan counties where an MCA has a place to sign in contracts awarded “yet they are not experts of anything nor is that part of their oversight and legislative”.
Mid this year, Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama caused a furore when he told a Madaraka Day rally at Afraha stadium that graft was rife in the Governor Kinuthia administration which led to the sacking of the then county procurement officer Elizabeth Masaku.
Masaku, however, successfully appealed against the decision and the industrial court reinstated her after finding that the Nakuru County government acted in excess of its powers when ousting her.
After the Masaku debacle, the county government announced that it had devolved procurement to the sub-counties.