A foreign bank headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, has turned down a Ksh785 million refund from Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP), a government project.
A report by Business Daily on Wednesday, February 2, indicated that the funds, which had been deposited in an account at the Central Bank, are under probe by the Parliament.
The charade began when Kenya Power made the excess payment to LTWP over idle power charges from 2018.
The wind production company then paid the money to the lender's account held at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) after Kenya Power provided the details. The lender was, however, reluctant to receive the money.
In its response, the company explained that it was yet to receive enough details regarding the intended beneficiaries of the huge amount.
The money exchange is now the subject of a Parliamentary probe over why the officials at the LWTP were reluctant to accept the payment.
In their defense, officials from the LWTP company revealed that they returned the money in December 2021 following the confusion.
“LTWP communicated to KPLC (via email) on December 23, 2021, that the payment had been returned and to provide an appropriate contact person at Central Bank of Kenya, or the additional banking information required.
“We subsequently reached out to both again on January 3, 2022 and January 12, 2022 but with unfortunately no response received yet," LWTP chief executive Phylip Leferink.
The situation has been exacerbated by the sudden resignation of Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) CEO and Managing Director, Fernandes Barasa.
Barasa was expected to appear before the Parliament's Public Investments Committee (PIC) Tuesday, February 1, to answer questions relating to the excess payment of the Ksh785 million.
While appearing before the committee, LWTP acting Managing Director, Anthony Wamukota, could not explain why Barasa resigned in a huff yet his contract was set to end in April 2022.
