Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations shall begin investigations on officers suspended by Governor Mutua over corruption claims.
This came after Governor Alfred Mutua suspended 30 officials following irregularities at the buildings planning approval office in Mavoko as found out by the governor.
While speaking on phone to Kenyans.co.ke, governor Mutua explained that some of the malpractices were the county losing a lot of revenue on fake permits that the workers were issuing, while also issuing permits at a price of Ksh 200,000 for permits worth Ksh 1 million and pocketing some money on the side.
Employees were also issuing permits for buildings whose rates were not paid and approving building plans without proof of ownership.
The governor also made reference to cartels that existed within that saw non-employees gain access to the offices and actually go ahead to issue permits to unsuspecting land owners.
Employees of the county also were in collusion with land grabbing cartels, legitimising their fraudulent claims on land by accepting land rates without proper documentation.
Following the findings,Governor Mutua sent the 30 employees on compulsory leave for three months pending investigations with the officers having no access to the offices unless accompanied by security officers and for the purpose of investigations only.
Two of the imposters namely, Maxwell Mwiti and Enas Kimani who had been posing as government employees and giving business permits were arrested on September 1 and were already arraigned in court facing those and more charges.
Those sent on compulsory leave were directed to present their documents to the Advisor on Anti-corruption matters,Mr Hyslop Isu at his Machakos office on September 10 at 8:00 am for lifestyle audits to be undertaken.
Governor Mutua requested those whose development plan approvals were irregularly approved would have their plans regularised at no additional charge and asked them to do so from September 10, including those who had constructed or were in the process of constructing without building approval plans.
This, however,would be ongoing up until September 30 in what was referred to as the ‘no-penalty window’ following which non-compliance,demolition of buildings and criminal charges constituted against those who didn’t comply would result.
