Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony was on Wednesday grilled by officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) over the controversial planned upgrade of Kerenga Airstrip.
The interrogation comes after detectives from the agency stormed the Kericho county government's procurement offices, carting off various crucial documents.
The agency confirmed that they were looking into allegations of a flawed tendering process for the airstrip upgrade.
Belgut MP Nelson Koech had previously claimed that the company that was awarded the tender was a proxy organization owned by the CEC in charge of Roads.
“There is clear rot and theft in Kericho. I have written to the EACC to investigate several cases of misuse of public funds; from non-remittance and banking of revenue collected and unaccounted for, to the tender on the expansion of Kerenga airstrip.
“I have information on how the winning company faked documents and bank statements and how the CEC in charge of that section colluded with them in filling the documents so they could get kickbacks," he told the press in Kericho.
He further questioned why Sh97 million was allocated for the project despite the County Assembly slashing the budget to Sh25 million.
“In the wisdom of the assembly, the upgrade of the airstrip should have cost between Sh15 million and Sh25million, in case of variation, but the money allocated in the tender is Sh97 million,” Koech wrote in his letter to the agency.
Koech disclosed that he shared all the information he had with the EACC.
The County Government, however, maintained that the launch of the airstrip upgrade would take place on Friday as planned.
