Former Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri has been sworn in to replace Anne Waiguru as the cabinet secretary for devolution.
Kiunjuri, tasked with cleaning up a docket that had been hit by numerous scandals that forced Waiguru to resign, is join the cabinet with some questions being asked about his record.
The 46-year-old former matatu tout and teacher, declared that he was worth KSh 798 million as of December 2015; a figure that got many Kenyans asking how he acquired his wealth.
1. Post elections violence
In January 2015, International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda named Mwangi Kiunjuri (together with six other individuals) as alleged accomplices of President Kenyatta in the 2007/8 post-election violence.
The others who were accused of organising and funding retaliatory killings in the Rift Valley were John Mututho, David Manyara and Jayne Kihara. Uhuru’s cases at the ICC was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Kiunjuri and the others denied the allegations and threatened to sue Bensouda for defamation.
2. KSh 652 million Umaa Dam scandal
In 2011, Mwangi Kuinjuri traded accusations with the then water and irrigation minister Charity Ngilu.
Kuinjuri, as an assistant minister, accused his boss of giving out tenders to companies owned by eight of her family members at inflated prices.
Parliamentary committee on lands and natural resources, chaired by Mutava Musyimi, investigated the matter an found Ngilu innocent.
Ngilu later turned the heat on Kiunjuri accusing him of trying to push for illegal payments from the ministry to his friends; which she stopped.
Ngilu said Kiunjuri’s friend, Mary Mungai, was demanding KSh 652 million for work not done at the Umaa Dam.
Kiunjuri was said to have played golf with Mungai and some top officials from National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation at Nairobi’s Railways Club in August 2010. Four days later, he apparently supported the contractor’s demand for additional funds to the KSh 824 million allocated for the Umaa Dam.
Kiunjuri admitted that Mungai, and other individuals implicated in the dam scandal were his friends “for over 10 years” and that he was not ashamed of them.
Coincidentally, Kiunjuri and Ngilu will not have to sit in Uhuru’s cabinet at the same time as the former was sacked during the reshuffle that saw Kiunjuri appointed.
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