Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives from the Mombasa Regional Office have arrested 9 suspects linked to fake tenders worth Ksh62 million.
Out of the nine arrested, six officials are from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).
According to the lead investigator, the suspects executed a fraudulent scheme to embezzle public funds through a tender awarded to a company they owned.
“They will be charged with conflict of interest, fraudulent acquisition of public property, and forgery of the documents used in the scam,” EACC stated.
Meanwhile, the suspects were arraigned before the Mombasa Anti-Corruption Court to answer the charges levelled against them.
The judge is expected to issue a ruling today, with EACC hopeful that it will be given time to detain the suspects as investigations continue.
The commission has yet to release a detailed statement on how the officials were linked to the company, whether they used proxies to access the funds and how the preliminary probe was conducted.
Detectives were believed to have followed the money trails of the accused before they were arrested in the crackdown.
Nonetheless, it stated that it looks forward to recovering the money lost through the official's fraud scheme.
On January 23, EACC launched a crackdown on government officials accused of using fake certificates to land state jobs.
Speaking in Kisumu after a meeting with Governor Anyang' Nyong'o, EACC Chairperson Bishop David Oginde clarified that all salaries paid, and money issued from the exchequer budget will be recovered.
“When the long arm of the law finally catches up with you, we shall recover all the money you got through that process,” Oginde commented.
