Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has filed an application in court, seeking to have the DPP and EACC blocked from prosecuting him in the Arror and Kimwarer multipurpose dam scandal.- By Gerald Gekara.
In a lengthy application to court, Rotich shifted the blame of Kimwarer and Arror dams scandals to former Judi Wakhungu and former Attorney-General Githu Muigai.
He added that it was unfair to charge him to court over the projects were entered by the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) with the approval of its parent ministry.
The KVDA was then under Ms Wakhungu, who was the Environment and Natural Resources and Regional Development Authorities minister.
In a report published by the Business Daily, Mr Rotich said he received a letter from Ms Wakhungu in March 14, 2016, containing the projects summary reports. The reports included the proposed financing of the two dams in Elgeyo Marakwet County, which was identified during the procurement process.
He said Ms Wakhungu then requested the Treasury to borrow funds on behalf of KVDA. The court documents stated that Public Debt Management Office at the Treasury, reviewed the reports before seeking legal clearance from Prof Muigai, who recommended to him to sign the loan agreements.
Mr Rotich, who has been charged together with former Treasury PS Kamau Thugge and 25 other officials from the ministry as well as KVDA bosses, said his duty was to ensure that that terms and conditions of the agreements, complied with the Treasury requirements.
“As such the applicant is embarrassed by these charges because he was not and cannot be involved in the micro-management or procurement process as this would be against the law.
“The decision by the respondents to charge the applicant is therefore irrational, oppressive and unjust,” he said.
The government officials were all accused of jointly conspiring to defraud the government of $501,829,769, by entering into a deal to construct the two dams, without approval.
They allegedly committed the offence between December 17, 2014 and January 31, 2019.
But the former CS faulted why his reputation was damaged because the procuring entity was the KVDA and not the Treasury.
