Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has revealed that two officers in his administration have been interdicted for ordering dumping of garbage outside Stima Plaza, the Kenya Power headquarters.
While appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security on Monday, Mr Sakaja said the two officers were suspected of being behind the shameful drama with Kenya Power over unpaid bills.
The revelation comes a day after President William Ruto said he had called both Sakaja and Kenya Power's management following a public fallout over an unpaid electricity bill running into millions of shillings. It also comes days after Sakaja denied authorising dumping of garbage at Stima Plaza.
The two officers are Mr James Sankale Lempaka, who is the debt management acting assistant director and Mr John Ntoiti, the acting director in charge of revenue administration.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that you directed the dumping of garbage outside Stima Plaza along Kobolot Road within Parklands. In view of the forgoing, you are hereby interdicted from exercising the duties of your office with effect from the date of this letter pending finalisation of this investigation,” interdiction letters to the two directors from Acting County Secretary Godfrey Akumali read in part.
However, the governor told the committee that his officers were not responsible for the sewage that overflowed outside the Electricity House within the CBD, alleging that it was an inside job that was meant to attract attention.
“For the matter of clarity, no sewage was dumped, no sewage was released. None of that happened,” he said.
“In fact, what happened at Electricity House, … normally when the service is cut off, you don’t use such facilities and you have to come and agree (with us) on how it should be restored but it almost like an order was given to them to flush the system from inside. That is why you saw something on the road.”
He added that “there was no dumping that we sent an exhauster to go and pour sewage, you know that never happened at all.”
Mr Sakaja alleged that the moment he realized that the raw sewage was causing disruption at Electricity House, he reached out to the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company and ordered them to restore the service.
“Measures have been put in place to ensure that such occurrence does not happen again,” he said.
His team under the leadership of Chief Officer in charge of health facilities Tom Nyakaba, Sakaja added, fumigated the area where the garbage was dumped.
“After this meeting, they can allow us into the facility for thorough check but everything outside the parking, even the vehicles, even the bushes, anything around that vicinity has been fumigated.”
This comes amidst the sudden disappearance from public view of Sakaja's Chief Officer for Environment Geoffrey Mosiria, the man who has been at the forefront of the clean-up efforts.
It is reported that the officer was admitted to one of the local hospitals at the same time as the dumping debate took a serious turn when the DCI started investigating the matter. The officer said he had been infected during one of the clean-up operations.
However, Director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin who also appeared before the committee together with the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, said that their investigations show that the orders were given by top leaders of the county.
“The three officers were low level junior officers and we still believe that they must have received orders from somebody in the high hierarchy of the council,” the DCI boss said.
Mr Amin noted that the three county employees who were arrested when the investigation started are drivers, who received orders from the top. The three are Mr Augustine Otieno Osore, Mr Moses Gitari Kanyua and Ms Alice Okare Achami.
The arrested drivers were set to face four charges — including robbery with violence, illegal waste disposal, obstruction and sabotage.
The suspects were released on bond pending determination of the case file by the Director of the Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga.
Mr William Kangogo, who is the head of enforcement, and Eva Wariuki, the Acting Chief Officer on Security and Compliance, are among other officers who were summoned by the DCI to record statement over the matter.
Mr Kanja said that he was out of the country when the feud took place, but ordered for immediate action against the perpetrators.
“What happened on that day is barbaric, is unacceptable and is criminal to say the least and that should never happen again in our country,” Mr Kanja said.
