On Sunday, former Jubilee vice chairman and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s close ally, David Murathe, claimed that he had damning evidence against Deputy President William Ruto, in an alleged corruption scandal.
According to Murathe, who spoke with K24’s Anne Kiguta in a hard-hitting interview, Ruto influenced the awarding of multi-billion Thwake Dam tender, by using his position to have the tender awarded to a company he preferred, over a company that was going to construct it at a lower cost.
The company Ruto chose was to spend Ksh3 billion more than the lowest evaluated company in 2017, a move that led to the firing of then Water Principal Secretary, Patrick Nduati.
“We are saying he influenced the notification of award of the Thwake Dam to a company who had bid Ksh 3 billion higher than the lowest evaluated company. And that actually occasioned the firing of the then Water PS.
"The company, which built the largest dam in the world, The Three Gorges Dam in China, came to me and said, David, how can this happen in this country. We are the lowest evaluated company and here is a letter that the tender has been given to our competitors who are Ksh 3 billion more expensive than us. Yet, we have built the biggest dam in the world, you want Kenyan taxpayers to lose,” Murathe alleged.
Murathe claimed that he then advised the company to appeal and the tender was cancelled and awarded to the firm.
The Mount Kenya leader further washed his name from the scandal, claiming that he did not influence any tender award for any company to construct Thwake Dam.
"No company associated with me won the Thwake Dam award. If you look at the Thwake situation, even before they were paid their first deposit, all the people associated with the project were paid by the ministry," Murathe assured.
At that point, Kiguta chipped in wondering why Murathe had not forwarded the evidence of the purported corruption deal to relevant authorities.
“It is out there,” he played coy.
The dam is located on the border of Kitui and Makueni counties.
Watch the video, courtesy of K24.
