Fresh details have emerged on the Sh. 40 Billion scandal that saw former Sports CS Rashid Echesa arrested and produced in court on Friday.
The Saturday Standard reports that the complainant, who is an American based in Poland, told the police that Echesa made the first move, approached them through e-mail and introducing himself as a Kenyan politician who would hook them up with a lucrative Sh39.5 billion tender.
He ( Echesa) reportedly asked them to pay a firm known as Pizzle Consultancy $115,000 (Sh11.5 million) as consultancy fee to show their commitment.
In an elaborate scheme that continues to make headlines, Echesa who was arraigned in court on Friday is said to have used the Office of the Deputy President and the signature of Defence Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma execute the fraudulent multi-billion-shilling deal to supply military surveillance equipment and guns.
Forensic investigations on the signatures have been launched as part of the investigations.
Reports indicate that much of the deal was negotiated and thrashed out within the DP’s Harambee House Annex office and at a various hotels within the city.
Echesa is also reported to have led a delegation of individuals posing as senior government officials to Poland where they reportedly inspected the military equipment that would be supplied in the fake tender.
The publication reports that things fell apart when the two investors-one Egyptian and an American eventually came into the country on Thursday to sign the deal and were ushered in style at Harambee House Annex where the deal was to be signed, in the Office of the Deputy President.
Failing to meet DP Ruto and signing contract
The told the police that despite Echesa promising that they would meet the DP and that the contract would be signed in his presence, they never got to meet him.
The investors were equally baffled when individuals who had been appearing at previous meetings in military uniform, claiming to be igh-ranking officials turned up in suits for the meeting at Harambe Annex.
The publication further reported that investigators are set to question Deputy President William Ruto’s aides and staff at his office after it emerged that much of the deal was negotiated within the DP’s Harambee House Annex office on a number of occasions.
A senior officer aware of the investigations stated that “They must have known something. Again the complainant has named some of the staff. We also recovered the fake tender papers from the office”.
Interestingly, the fictitious tender document used in the scheme and reportedly found both in the Office of the Deputy President and in Echesa’s car, bore the signature of CS Juma, among other senior ministry officials.
Meanwhile, the embattled former CS has maintained that he is innocent.
Speaking to the press shortly after he was arraigned in court at JKIA, Echesa read malice in the accusations, insisting that the police and investigative agencies were being used by certain individuals to frustrate him.