The National Youth Service (NYS) scandal has taken another new twist when Jubilee MPs on Tuesday accused opposition party leader Raila Odinga and over 20 Cord legislators as being among the major beneficiaries of the multi-billion shillings scam.
The MPs led by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa said that Suna East MP Junet Mohamed led the list by acquiring over Sh70 million for the supply of goods to the NYS through dubious procurement processes.
The goods included the supply of beans, rice and biscuits which the MPs claim was illegally smuggled into the country through the Somali port of Kismayu.
The Jubilee MPs said that Mohamed and his sister won several tenders through companies linked to them as a result of the influence of the chairman of the Devolution Ministry’s tender committee, Hassan Noor, who coincidentally happens to be the Suna East MP’s brother in law.
Hassan Noor and former NYS Deputy Director-General Adan Harakhe were on Monday charged in court over a Sh47 million expenditure at the agency.
Money trail
Speaking during Citizen’s TV The Big Question, Ichung’wa said they had evidence that showed a money trail of bank transactions revealing the millions illegally acquired by Mohamed went directly to Raila Odinga.
Mr Mohammed was named by Jubilee lawmakers as one of the directors of Zeigham Enterprises Ltd, a company that supplied NYS with goods worth Sh21.8 million.
Fahaza Ltd, a company in which his sister Hafsa Sheikh Nuh is listed as a director, also bagged a contract worth Sh51.8 million, taking the total worth of contracts given to companies linked to the MP to Sh73.6 million.
The Jubilee MPs now want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate all the Cord legislators who had links to the loss of the NYS funds which run into billions of shillings.
Government failure
However, Mohamed rubbished the claims claiming the Jubilee MPs were merely engaging in propaganda to shield the failures of the government.
“This is a government of buffoons which has failed in its mandate to stem the vice of corruption that is rampant in the country,” Mohamed said during the Citizen TV live show on Tuesday night.
Mohamed claimed that he was never a shareholder at the companies at the time they were involved in transactions with the NYS.
However he did not refuse to deny that at one time he was a shareholder at the companies which the Jubilee MPs claim were linked to the NYS scam.
"The NYS was under the Devolution and Planning ministry headed by a Jubilee Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary and Chief Accounting Officer. I wonder how ODM could have managed to steal millions under that structure," Mohamed said.
The Suna East legislator further said that his team (Cord) had their own list which revealed that several Jubilee MPs and other senior government officials linked to over 200 companies that were behind corruption scandals in the country.
He added that the leadership of Central Kenya were obsessed with Raila and cannot stop associating his name with every ill that is facing the country.
Mr Mohammed is currently a member of the Public Accounts Committee which is handling investigations into the NYS scam.