EACC goes after multimillionaire City Hall employee on a KShs. 21,000 salary
A procurement officer at the Nairobi City County earning just KShs. 21,000 monthly is in the spotlight over some KShs. 40 million suspected graft dealings. The monies are alleged to have been received by the officer as bribes from suppliers.
The man is Michael Auka Ajwang’, a procurement officer in the department of supply chain management at City Hall. At 45 years of age, there will be no problem for Ajwang’ to own most things. But the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission thinks otherwise telling the court that there is a need to freeze properties owned by Ajwang’.
The court in Nairobi was told that the properties are suspected to be proceeds of crime and that failure to block transactions on them will make recovery impossible and the investigative process nonsensical. Justice Daniel Ogembo has issued an order, stopping Ajwang’ from dealing with several of his properties.
The multimillion properties under investigation include eleven motor vehicles, bought in recent years, the oldest registered as KBV 015M, and three motorcycles. There are 9 parcels of land spread across Nyanza and one in Nairobi.
EACC insists that Ajwang’s five properties in Siaya, three in Kisumu, and one in Nairobi’s Utawala Estate are products of grand corruption emanating from unfair tender and supply processes at the Nairobi City County by the junior officer.
And then there is, Hydeout Riviera Limited which is a three-star hotel in Kisumu. The EACC says the hotel is a vehicle used by Ajwang’ to conceal proceeds of graft. The Commission has drawn Ajwang’s wife, Risper Achieng Ojigo into the messy grand scheme as a director of Hydeout Riviera.
EACC says that earning an average monthly salary of KShs. 21,000, for the period under investigation between January 2014 and June 2022, he earned a salary amounting to KShs.2,122,232. The Commission says that there is no way, Ajwang would have made such wealth with the court giving the freeze order for the next 6 months.