Israeli police officers have carried out a raid at the Nairobi offices of one of the largest construction company in Israel - Shikun and Binui.
The officers are probing allegations that the company bribed senior officials in the Ministry of Transport to obtain construction tenders in mega infrastructural projects in Kenya.
Shikun and Binui company was awarded a Ksh14 Billion tender in 2010 to construct the World Bank-funded Mau Summit-Kericho-Kisumu Highway through its foreign subsidiary Solel Boneh International Holdings.
[caption caption="Israel police in a past operation"]
[/caption]
The Israel government has been probing the company since February 20, and its senior managers have been interrogated in the ongoing investigations.
The company confirmed that the police raided its premises and added that they were fully complying with the authorities to facilitate the investigations.
"A number of current and former employees of SBI AG, Shikun and Binui and the Shikun and Binui subsidiary were held for investigation or summoned for testimony by the Israeli police," a statement from the company read.
The statement further revealed that Israeli police had also frozen some of the company’s bank accounts where about Ksh5.7 Billion was deposited.
In addition, the police froze other assets and searched and seized documents in SGI AG’s offices both in Israel and Kenya.
The scandal is likely to implicate senior officials in the Transport Ministry although Kenya police are yet to publicly reveal the progress of the investigations.
An internal investigation by the company and another by the World Bank’s Integrity Office have been halted to allow the completion of the investigations by Israeli police.
[caption caption="A section of the Mau-Summit-Kericho-Kisumu road under construction"]
[/caption]
The company had earlier on indicated that it intended to audit a number of SBI AG’s completed projects in Kenya although it has been gunning for other projects in Kenya.
