Kiambu County Governor Paul Kimani Njoroge alias Wamatangi (center), escorted by his supporters, leaving the offices of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on April 15, 2025, after being released over allegations of Irregular Procurement and Fictitious Payments of Kshs 1.5 Billion.
It was a long day for Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi, who spent the better part of Tuesday answering questions from sleuths at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) headquarters in Nairobi over claims of Sh1.7 billion financial and procurement irregularities of county funds.
The anti-graft watchdog accused Mr Wamatangi, alongside eight other individuals, mostly senior Kiambu county officials, of various accounts of irregular payments and arrested them to give their statements on the same.
These senior officials included Peter Njoroge (County Secretary), Nancy Njeri (County Executive Committee Member of Finance), Salome Muthoni (CEC Lands), William Kinyanhui (Chief Officer Finance), Phyllis Wanjiru (Director Supply Chain), Henry Mburu (Director, Revenue), Paul Kibe (Clerical Officer) and businessman Bernard Kabaiku (Director, M/s Filtronic International Limited)
The Kiambu county boss was arrested at his rural home in Kibiku, Kabete sub-county, a few minutes to 9am; a culmination of hours spent by tens of police officers who surrounded his house from as early as 4am Tuesday morning.
Witnesses who saw the early morning raid estimate that about 150 police officers camped at Kabete, Kibiku, the rural home of Mr Wamatangi, with another chain of around 80 police officers in anti-riot gear camping at the County headquarters. The officers at the county offices accompanied the EACC sleuths carted away procurement files, which they said were part of the investigations, to their office in Nairobi.
EACC's CEO, Adbi Mohamud, in a statement, said that the sting operation and arrest of the nine individuals are part of an ongoing investigation into alleged financial and procurement malpractices within the county government of Kiambu.
Key among the issues being investigated include allegations that county government officials engaged in trading with the county and received payments totaling Sh1.5 billion through irregular procurement processes and procurement laws.
"Today's operation has resulted in the recovery of crucial evidential material to support ongoing investigations. This includes the seizure of Sh12 million and USD13,000 in cash at the residence of Governor Kimani Wamatangi, which is suspected to be the proceeds of corruption," Mr Mohamud said.
The other matters being investigated are allegations of conflict of interest, procurement irregularities and abuse of office against the senior officials in the awarding of a contract for the supply, delivery, installation, testing, training, commissioning and support services of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System.
The contract, valued at Sh230 million, was awarded to M/s Filtronic International Limited during the 2022/23 financial year.
A few hours following Wamatangi’s arrest, chaos erupted at the Commission’s headquarters as tens of Mr Wamatangi's supporters- bearing placards and branches- chanted and demanded for his release.
Police officers, as if in anticipation of the demonstrations, stood hawk-eyed guarding the entire perimeter of Integrity House, which houses the EACC.
Dismissed allegations
The angst, frustration and anger of Wamatangi’s supporters turned to joy at around 5pm when he was released, making them burst in whistles and cheers.
On his part, Governor Wamatangi dismissed the allegations filed against him by the Commission saying they were nothing but fictitious stories orchestrated by some national leaders to tarnish his good name.
“All those (allegations) are stories, If you have a case, you take it to court and the court rules on the matter. The order that was used to come and harass my family was a fictitious order, it was from the court but was obtained fraudulently. They used the wrong name, a certain Paul Njoroge, to hide my identity and get the document,” he said.
Kiambu County Governor Kimani Wamatangi leaves EACC offices after his release on April 15, 2025.
He also faulted the EACC for raiding his house yet had never received any summons and should he have received one, he would have personally visited the EACC offices.
“This is purely political intimidation. There is no reason for more than 50 police officers to be deployed to my house and office with another 200 being deployed to various senior county officials. The officers were targeting only the most performing ministers because they want Kiambu county to fail. That will not happen,” he said.
Kiambu, a rich and vote rich county that has always made headlines over either heated politics or corruption.
Currently, its former Governor Ferdinard Waititu alias Baba Yao is already in jail after being convicted of corruption and conflict of interest when he served as the county boss.
