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The Nation Media group has been forced to reprint copies of Business Daily after a cartel bought the edition in bulk clearing the edition from the streets.
The special edition had featured as the lead story, a revelation of how billions of shillings had been lost at the Ministry of Health.
The media company only got to know of the plot after consistent inquiries over the availability of the day’s edition. According to the story in Business Daily,
“Top Ministry of Health officials have stolen more than Sh5 billion in an NYS-style mega corruption scandal involving diversion of funds, double payment for goods, and manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS)”
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A leaked internal audit report showed how top officials at the ministry and their cohorts benefited from the scandal which the audit report says could have seen even higher amounts lost since it had only covered a small sample.
Efforts of the powerful forces at play were seen early on as the journalist doing the story, Stellar Murumba was threatened by the principal secretary at the ministry during a face to face meeting.
Instead of denying the existence of such a report, the PS Nicholas Muraguri threatened her and is quoted saying,
““I mean, you don’t know government. We can get what you write even before you publish it, including getting print-shots and screenshots of the story.
Someone can be reading your messages while sitting here. If there is a need to hack Nation’s system we can. We can even confirm how much money is in your account now.”
His threats to hack the Nation’s system seem to have been true but the cartel resorted to another tactic, ensuring the papers never got to the street.
However, the plans have backfired as the story was online and the matter made public. The PS now finds himself in a tight spot with pressure coming his side following his threats.