Eliud Owalo, who was Raila Odinga’s 2013 Presidential Campaign Manager, has joined Nairobi senator Mike Sonko in hitting out at Evans Kidero for the corruption scandal trailing him.

In a sponsored Facebook post titled: ABABU AND KIDERO MUST GO-IT’S IMPERATIVE FOR ODM TO REIGN IN ON CORRUPTION WITHIN ITS RANKS, Olwalo has demanded for Kidero and Secretary General of the ODM Party Ababu Namwamba to be kicked out of the ODM party in order to rid the party off corrupt elements who are putting it in bad light.

“The grave corruption allegations leveled against Ababu Namwamba by virtue of his capacity as the Chairman of the PAC makes his position as the Chairman of this crucial house watchdog Committee no longer tenable. He must therefore step aside to pave way for relevant organs of both Parliament and the state to conduct impartial investigations into the matter to determine the veracity or otherwise of those allegations.

Equally, Ababu no longer has the moral authority to continue clinging onto the position of Secretary General of the ODM Party.The Party Secretary General is the spokesperson of the party. The image of the party in the eyes of Kenyans will be heavily dented and perhaps at the lowest ebb if it’s own policy advocate who is the SG is heavily implicated in graft. This will also rob the party and it’s presidential candidate a crucial campaign message, namely the fight against corruption; in the 2017 elections.

Equally, Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has been accused of systematically running down Mumias Sugar Company during his tenure as the Managing Director of the giant Sugar Miller. He was not MD of Mumias by virtue of being the Governor of Nairobi, and he must therefore be ready to bear responsibility as to costs and consequences of the same without dragging the Party into it.

It does not help the Party cause to continue clinging onto Kidero in the face of serious allegations of graft at Mumias Sugar Company to the detriment of the people of Western Kenya whose single largest source of livelihood is now at stake.The Party risks losing its crucial Western support base by being seen to be protective of Kidero who has crippled the economy of the Western region, yet he is equally known to be one of the most disloyal members of the Party. Embarasingly, the Nairobi County Governer is heavily implicated in wanton land grabbing reminiscent of the Nyayo era yet both ODM and the CORD Coalition has maintained a studious silence on the same simply because it’s our own Governor is at the engine and otho-centre of the land scams.” Reads Olwalo’sopost in part.

SONKO ACCUSES KIDERO OF CORRUPTION

Last week, Sonko publicly announced that Nairobi governor Evans Kidero has been perpetrating massive corruption and mismanagement in the county. Sonko accused Kidero of collaborating with former cronies at Mumias Sugar Company in fishy deals at city hall.

“There are several companies of questionable integrity, some connected to the financial problems Mumias Sugar Company is facing, that have now pitched camp in City Hall to chase tenders. On February 10, 2015, I tabled several documents in the Nairobi City County Assembly that clearly showed conflict of interest by several people doing business in City Hall. The KPMG special audit on Mumias clearly captures this on pages 191 and 193,” read a section of a post on Sonko’s Facebook page on Friday last week, before he went ahead to have the allegations published in a local daily a day later.

In a three page dossier published in the Sunday Standard, Sonko claimed that Kidero was giving out tenders to his cronies, some of whom he alleged had worked with him at the Mumias company.

Among these people is Peter Hongo, who is now the General Manager of Sifa Cleaning and Bins Services Company which has been given the tender to collect garbage in posh City estates like Lavington, Kileleshwa, Westlands, Milimani and other estates. Hongo is allegedly a former business development manager at Mumias Sugar Company.

Sonko also went ahead to table his dossier against Kidero during the opening of the County Assembly yesterday. The senator claimed that over Sh200 million had so far been misappropriated since the county government’s inception.

“I wish to table some audio clips and unfortunately it will not go down well with some people who will lose some confidence in me but for the sake of development of Nairobi County, allow me to table them,” he said.

Kidero is also facing other serious claims contained in an audit report, detailing a scam of fake export of sugar worth Sh2.7 billion by the Mumias Sugar Company when he was then the managing director.

Sonko, with a big bundle of files containing documents of alleged corrupt dealings involving Kidero’s government top officials, alleged that over Sh200 million had, so far, misappropriated since the county government’s inception.

The senator also revealed that another company (Peposi Freight Kenya Limited) was irregularly awarded a tender at City Hall by Kidero.

“Peposi Freight Kenya Ltd was registered on December 23, 2014 and the next day opened an account at Cooperative Bank, City Hall branch. Sh7.6 million was wired from the Nairobi County Government for services never delivered,” said sonko

Kidero on his part has trashed Sonko’s allegations as merely political and asked him to table his evidence in the relevant organs. Last week in a statement sent to newsrooms, Kidero also refuted accusations of running down Mumias Sugar company and maintained that he joined Mumias in 2003 when the company was making loses and left in June 2012 having turned around the fortunes of the company that was now making billions of shillings.

“In 2002, for example, the company made a loss of two hundred and forty-four million shillings [but] by the time of my departure, the company had made cumulative profits of fourteen billion shillings,”

“In my final year, the company made a net profit of 2.6 billion. The net cash position was Ksh 656 million,” Kidero says he left Mumias in a very sound financial state and cannot be held responsible for what happened after he had left.