State officials put to task on rail project

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

The Deputy President’s Chief of Staff Marianne Kitany and Infrastructure Principal Secretary Nduva Muli have to shed light on what they know about the controversial Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway tender, a senator has said.

Senate Majority Whip Beatrice Elachi said the two, having served as senior managers at Kenya Railways at the time when the procurement of the Sh220 billion project was going on, were best-placed to address the queries being raised about the tender.

“They should come out and tell Kenyans what all these noise is all about. We want to know how Kenya Railways ended up with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) as the contractor. We want to know who did the design and valuation of the project, and what the correct figures are, and how they arrived at all those figures,” said Senator Elachi.

The dare to Mr Muli, the former managing director of Kenya Railways, and Kitany, the former information systems manager at the same firm, come amid political and public uproar on the alleged malfeasance in the procurement of the project.

Ahead of the launch, Kitany had written to Attorney General Githu Muigai seeking a legal seal of approval, in the face of mounting queries from the Public Procurement Oversight Authority.