The Ali Korane graft mystery

On the day before he took over as Garissa Governor in 2017 after winning a tightly contested race between him and incumbent Nadhif Jama, Ali Bunow Korane had a few words to say about his rival.

In the weeks leading to the election, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) had succeeded to get a court order freezing Jama’s bank accounts so that it could scrutinise transactions amounting to Sh5.2 billion made during his term as Governor.

The political rivalry between Mr Jama and Mr Korane had dominated local politics for years and was heavily intertwined with clan, party and presidential politics. In 2013 Mr Jama, running on a Wiper ticket and supported by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), narrowly beat Mr Korane, who was vying on a Jubilee Party ticket.

But throughout Mr Jama’s reign, Mr Korane continuously attacked the governor on unfinished projects, corruption and misuse of public funds.

With the well-oiled Jubilee behind him, Mr Korane had a good chance of winning in 2017, but it was the freezing of Jama’s bank accounts and the bad publicity it gave the incumbent that heavily tilted the race in Korane’s favour.

Corruption

When he finally captured the seat in 2017, Mr Korane stuck a reconciliatory tone, although he maintained that Jama must be punished for corruption.

Very little has been heard of Jama since leaving public office, but the man who kicked him out of office on an anti-graft wave will on Monday be charged with that very same vice. That will make him the sixth sitting governor to be charged in court with corruption.

EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak told the Saturday Nation more governors will face arrest in the coming weeks, and that their “attempt to muzzle and frustrate the media is futile”.

Mr Korane’s troubles with the law began in 2018, when Idriss Muktar, a county executive in Mr Jama’s administration, was shot outside a Nairobi hotel.

Mr Muktar, sacked together with three others by the Jama administration, had challenged and won the dismissals in court, and awarded more than Sh50 million in damages. Mr Korane’s administration has appealed the case.

A key suspect in the attempted murder, David Wanjiru Mwai alias Mwas, allegedly committed suicide inside his cell at Parklands Police Station, where he was being held.  Mr Mukhtar is still in a coma following the shooting, while Mr Korane was briefly arrested and questioned.

In the current case, Mr Korane’s administration is accused of embezzling a Sh233 million a grant by the World Bank under the Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP).

The project was part of a Sh30 billion programme launched in 2017 to fund rural urban centres to jumpstart their critical infrastructure. For Garissa, the money was supposed to be used for the construction of Quorey market, recarpeting of Garissa Township CBD roads, and construction of storm water drainage and pedestrian walks.

Sh124 million

However, once the money hit the county account, it was diverted to other uses and some of it withdrawn, detectives say — for instance, Sh124 million was diverted to the departments of Water, Health and the Garissa Sewerage Company.

County officials told investigators the transfers were necessitated by a drought-related emergency.

On Monday, Mr Korane, the county’s chief of Finance Ibrahim Nur Malow, head of Treasury Mohamed Ahmed Abdullahi, County Executive Officer municipality Abdi Shale and head of Accounting at the municipal Ahmed Abdulahi Aden will be presented before court to face corruption charges.

The five will be charged with conspiracy to commit an offence, wilful failure to comply with the law relating to the management of public funds, misappropriation of public funds and abuse of office.

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