Activist moves to court to seek removal of KURA official over illegalities

An activist has moved to court seeking the removal of senior Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) official, Saadia Haji Adam Khalifa, over allegations of corruption and procurement irregularities of road projects in the country amounting to over Ksh19 billion.

In a petition filed at the Milimani High Court, activist Francis Awino wants Khalifa kicked out of office and a probe commenced over financial mismanagement and incompetence at the state agency that has led to loss of Kenyan taxpayers billions of shillings.

While seeking orders for Khalifa’s removal from office, Owino says that she has committed overwhelming illegalities, irregularities and circumvention of the law by awarding tenders to her cronies and paying for projects that have not been fully completed.

“Khalifa is not fit to hold office due to her corrupt dealings and his continued stay in office as the deputy director of supply chain management at KURA is against the public interest,” the activist says.

He seeks a permanent order prohibiting Khalifa from taking any further management of KURA.

The petitioner also seeks orders compelling the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to launch an investigation on Khalifa over gross misconduct and corruption.

“An order be issued directed to the EACC to conduct investigations against Khalifa with speed and or within a time frame as the court may provide,” Owino seeks.

The activist further wants the court to compel the official to step aside to allow free and credible investigations to be conducted at KURA.

The petitioner also wants the anti-graft body to commence an investigation against the officer since she has perpetuated gross acts of corruption in KURA leading to loss of public funds that cannot be accounted for.

“The respondent while holding her position as the deputy director of supply chain management at the Kenya Urban Roads Authority has done acts of corruption and been marred with bribery scandals,” the court papers state.

Khalif has been put on the spot upon the release of a report by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu which details several issues of concern within the organization orchestrated by her irregular and unprocedural tender details at KURA.

The court papers reveal that officials have awarded contracts to a company belonging to one Abdisirat Khalif Ali without following the strict guidelines of the tender requirements by KURA.

According to Owini, the Company, Tasha Holdings Limited is a proxy firm of Khalif which is un-procedurally issued with tenders at KURA.

“It has been noted that the irregular award of tenders to persons that are not qualified has led to the engineers and contractors assigned the projects reportedly doing very substandard work and not being held accountable for the same owing to Khalifa’s influence,” Owino says.

The petitioner avers that Khalifa has facilitated the award of multi-billion road tenders in the urban areas in Kenya where all 95% of funds are allocated leaving much work not completed as per the agreement by the Kenya Urban Roads Authority.

Owino says that some of the road projects that to date remain uncompleted include stalled road projects in Nairobi directly done by Tasha Holding Limited including Eastlands Savannah Road, upgrading of Uphill roads and Thika bypass among others.

In addition, the activist also says: “Khalifa has been the beneficiary of kickbacks at the authority.”

According to the court papers, Owino says Khalifa has aided cartels in the transport sector who benefit from state projects through procurement malpractices and irregular contracts where she awards tenders to cronies then later advertises as a formality.

One such instance is when Khalifa favoured a construction firm identified as Stecol Corporation to do Ksh19 billion works in Nairobi, Kajiado and Kiambu counties.

The firm was involved in the upgrading of Outering Road and has been mentioned in the construction of a bridge at Allsops that will join Outering Road and Thika Superhighway.

According to activist Owino, Stecol Corporation has always been awarded most of the contracts in the regeneration of roads in Nairobi Eastlands.

The Petitioner avers that the Auditor General’s latest report on KURA’s failure to account for Ksh 2.7 billion is a damning indictment of the authority’s financial management.

He contends that Khalifa’s record and scandals only serve to highlight her incompetence and there is therefore an urgent need for her to step down from her position and be held responsible and accountable to ensure that such financial mismanagement does not continue to occur in the future.

“The removal from office is therefore the Constitution’s final answer, a safety valve, to a State officer or a public servant who mistakes himself for a monarch. As they say, power corrupts, and the framers of the Constitution being cognizant of this fact, built guardrails against the autocratic exercise of power by the leaders,” Owino says.