Fight for millions that could have cost his ex-boss his job :: Kenya

Twenty days before she left as Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) general manager, Catherine Wairi quarreled with the Kenya Railways by sending a scathing letter of request to highest ranking railway.

On May 2, she wrote to KR Chief Executive Officer Atanas Maina demanding payment of 900,528,000 shillings for the work and equipment used by the railways to load and transport cargo on the standard rail freight service.
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Incidentally, Mr. Maina is a trustee of the board of directors who dismissed Ms. Wairi at a night meeting on May 30, although it was not the case. did not attend the committee meeting that day.

His dismissal is now the subject of two lawsuits and one of the arguments that is invoked there is that the engineer who attended the council meeting was not entitled to the to do and to vote.

Relation to the cold

It is unclear why Ms. Wairi chose the avenue of writing to ask for money or if she had tried other means, including asking the Ministry of Transportation to Forcing KR to pay its debt. But this demand illustrates the complex and chilly relationship between KPA and KR following the introduction of the freight service.

In the May 2 letter, Ms. Wairi says, "The purpose of this letter is to ask you to remit Sh930,528,000 for the rental of labor and equipment in January 2018 to March 2018. "

She seems anxious to remind the boss of KR that KPA had supported the freight service SGR, including the construction of port rescue lines for the launch of the service in January and its operation.

"KPA also revised its rates to encourage customers to use the RMS," she wrote, adding that when the freight service was launched, KR was to handle the freight at the marshalling station. by a designated operator.

Apparently, KR did not name the operator or did not meet its other obligations. Instead, KPA has seconded its employees and equipment to KR 's under a financial arrangement with the expectation that KR would reimburse.

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KPA Acting Director General Daniel Manduku responded to the reports, saying that KPA and KR are government agencies and the question of who should be who should not happen.

"We have our own payment mechanisms, we work for KR or even Kenya's national road authorities (Kenha), so it's not a problem," said Dr. Manduku.

He said that the money in question belonged to the National Treasury and it does not matter whether it is in the right or left pocket.

According to the letter, KR did not pay this money from January to March and it accumulated the equivalent of 5,184,000 shillings for the KPA supervisory personnel seconded to the freight service, 840,000 shillings for employees, 5,184,000 shillings for dockers and Sh4,320,000 for serangs.

The letter indicates that KPA deployed reach stackers and terminal tractors to KR in favor of the freight service for which 259,200,000 shillings and 648,000 shillings remained unpaid respectively by KR at the beginning of May.

Officially, Ms. Wairi's dismissal was attributed to the incompetence and inability to decongest the container depot of the port. In the days leading up to its eviction, Kenya Revenue Authority's computer clearing systems also collapsed, making it impossible to transport any cargo imported from the port.

Trust Bank Account

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Reports indicate that KPA and KR, who run SGR trains, have not worked together to achieve the same goals since the launch of the freight service at the beginning of this year.

Other reports indicate that the two parastatals deferred on the management of an alleged escrow account created at the bank money raised RMS freight services to pay the loan borrowed from the Chinese to build the railroad.

This revelation comes at a time when Manduku's two-month term as interim MD terminates, and as a result of a decision rendered on July 5 by the Mombasa High Court to authorize the Ethics Commission and Anti-Corruption (EACC) investigating how a private company has acquired a first-rate property owned by KPA.

Following her eviction, Ms. Wairi allegedly claimed that she was frustrated or sabotaged by other state agencies also operating in the port.

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