A man who was employed as a cleaner at Teleposta Towers in Nairobi received Sh. 257 million for supplying air to the prisons department, a report in the Daily Nation newspaper has unearthed.

According to the report in the paper, Kipkurui Mutai was employed as a cleaner by the State Department for Correctional Services in 2009. From 2017, he was stationed at the Teleposta Towers in the procurement section.

Between 2012 and 2016, he registered seven briefcase companies with which he intended to get into the business of government tenders. It was with these seven companies that he would later receive the Sh. 257 million amount.

According to a related release by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the seven companies include Homex Logistics, Hygienic Ventures, Nerimas General Agencies, Facton Logistics Enterprises, Trechris Services, White Unicorn Logistics, and Unique Supplies.

According to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, each of these companies supplied various goods to seven prisons within Nairobi.

“Payment vouchers show that the seven companies supplied various prison facilities, including Nairobi Remand, Kamiti Main Prison, Nairobi West Prison, Lang’ata Women, Kamiti Medium, Kamiti Yctc, and Nairobi Medium,” the EACC states. From these supplies, the seven companies were paid Sh. 257 million from the State Department of Correctional Services’ Central Bank account number 10000302054.

The goods and services the EACC says he supplied are groceries, vegetables, food, hair and sanitary products, supply of goods, and consultation services on constituional law.

Homex Logistics received Sh. 62.5 million, Hygienic Ventures received Sh. 56 million, Nerimas General Agencies got Sh. 22 million, Facton Logistics Enterprises received Sh. 13.2 million, Techris Services got Sh. 13.6 million, White Unicorn Logistics got Sh. 10 million, and Unique Supplies received Sh. 79.4 million.

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Shockingly though, the Teleposta cleaner had not supplied anything to the prisons with these companies. “Investigations, however, established that the companies did not supply any of the prisons, and the payment vouchers did not originate from them,” the EACC states. In fact, the EACC adds that Kipkurui Mutai had falsified payment vouchers to have the funds approved and deposited to his accounts.

“There are no attached local purchase orders, inspection, and acceptance committee certificates in the payment vouchers. None of the deliveries indicated on the delivery notes attached to the payment vouchers was recorded in the prison books,” the EACC states.

“The delivery notes have no name of the receiving officer which should be included. None of the payments was charged in the vote book in the respective vote book of the prison where the deliveries were purported to have been made.”

The report in the newspaper quotes the EACC as stating that out of the Sh. 257 million that was paid out, Kipkurui Mutai withdrew Sh. 133 million for unspecified reasons and used the remainder of the money to buy properties and vehicles.