KENYANS ON TWITTER PLEAD WITH DPP MR. HAJI TO PROSECUTE KETRACO BOSS OVER FRAUD.

‘’The cable subsequently suffered four major acts of vandalism inside the Nairobi National Park. The total cost of the repairs after energization was €8.1 million (Sh944 million) which was undertaken by the same contractor,’’ said KETRACO. 

Mr. Fernandes Barasa, KETRACO's MD & CEO,

DPP Noordin Haji has been urged by Kenyans on twitter to investigate and prosecute the KETRACO CEO Mr. Fernandes Barasa for fraud at the power transmission company.

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO); is at the heart of the new Sh1.1 billion scandal after paying a contractor twice for the same work. The contractor was paid to repair a high voltage 220kV underground cable the same company had installed a few months earlier.



In paid up advertisements in the local dailies some times back, the power transmission company said that it paid SIEMENS France Sh944 million to repair the vandalized underground cable which the same contractor had erected for Sh1.1 billion. The cost of repair is a whopping Sh85.8 per cent of the initial cost.

Responding to the graft allegation in what it termed as ‘setting the record straight’, the company explained that the initial cost of the cable was €9.569 million (Sh1.1 billion which was awarded to SIEMENS France IN 2010. The high voltage 220 kV underground cable was completed and energized on September 26, 2016.

‘’The cable subsequently suffered four major acts of vandalism inside the Nairobi National Park. The total cost of the repairs after energization was €8.1 million (Sh944 million) which was undertaken by the same contractor,’’ said KETRACO.

Although the firm secured advertisement spaces with intention of exonerating itself from corruption allegations as captured in four internal audits, the explanation on the amount spent on repair work begs more questions than answers.

Kenyans could not understand how people could enter a guarded park and vandalize a high voltage power cable four times without being spotted. They also picked issue with the high repair cost.
‘’Vandalism of high voltage power cables inside national park, four times? That led to cost of repair almost equaling the original acquisition cost? This is more of an admission rather than a bonafide defense,’’ said Mohamed Welhye, a renowned financial advisor on twitter.

‘’Is this a case where a contractor sends their own people to vandalize the cables so that they can charge to buy new ones? Who steals cables when energized? You have to put off power first,’’ said Tony Waweru also on twitter.
In a nine point clarification in local dailies, last month, the power transmitter dismissed scam allegations that appeared in a section of media, asking the public to ignore leaked internal audit reports doing rounds on social media.