Love and wealth: Police chiefs’ rich wives
By STELLA CHERONO
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Kenya’s police officers are some of the wealthiest public servants, banking hundreds of thousands of shillings monthly from their “businesses”.
In their testimonies before the team vetting them, senior police officers have explained how they have been making millions of shillings from rearing chicken, rental income and fish farming among other money-making ventures.
Their testimonies, if true, put Kiganjo Police Training College at par with the region’s top business schools in producing entrepreneurs of note.
However, in an indictment of the vetting process, none of the senior officers has explained how they cracked a major crime and secured convictions or the innovative things they did to reduce or eliminate crime in their regions.
The following are excerpts from the testimonies given by top police officers during the vetting by the Johnston Kavuludi-led National Police Service Commission (NPSC).
1. Nandi Central OCPD Joakim Mecha
His account was probably the most shocking to the National Police Service Commission panel on Monday, February 9, 2015.
His payslip indicated that he earned Sh26,000 as salary in 2011 yet the commission led by Mr Kavuludi stated that he transacted up to Sh440,000 in a day through his M-Pesa account.
“In my family, I was the one who was relied on to pay school fees for my siblings. I do get money from my wife and from consultation duties,” he told the vetting team.
According to the panel, Mr Mecha deposited more than Sh122,000 in his bank account in less than a week.
On April 19, 2014, he deposited Sh159,000. On the same day, a deposit of Sh500,000 was made into the account.
The commission alleged that he deposited a further Sh50,000 on January 12, 2012, and on the same day, Sh150,000 was deposited into the same account.
He also said that he got money from his engineering consultancy and that another Sh500,000 was from a loan he had applied for.
Mr Mecha, an engineering graduate, said he also performed the M-Pesa transactions when he was buying file cabinets, desks and seats for a new office in his division.
2. Former AP Senior Staff College Commandant Eusebius Laibuta
He told the Johnston Kavuludi-led panel that retiring him from the service before he completes his few remaining years could kill him.
“I personally appeal to you not to spell doom on us by taking away our jobs, because if you do so, you may find some of us on the obituary pages of newspapers,” Mr Laibuta told the panel.
He was at pains to explain the source of his income other than his salary. He could not explain clearly the source of a Sh3 million annual income listed as coming from miscellaneous and rental payments.
He failed to explain huge deposits made to his account on November 30, 2012.
“Kindly consider the length of our service to this nation before you spell doom on our careers. We may have erred here and there, but please forgive us,” he pleaded.
3. Former Director of Police Reforms Jonathan Koskei
The officer was not consistent in explaining why he had been receiving millions of shillings from his junior police officers, among them World Champion David Rudisha.
The panel alleged that Mr Koskei had received Sh900,000 twice from the athlete, saying it was meant for purchasing some farm inputs.
“Mr Rudisha deposited the money into my account for the purpose of purchasing some machinery” he said.
The panel also wanted to know why the athlete again deposited a cheque of a similar amount and Mr Koskei said the money was meant for the purchase of dairy cows.
“The farm and the dairy project are two different projects with different entities,” he said and could not explain why his juniors deposited some money to his account from time to time.
The panel vetting him learnt that Mr Koskei was not aware of basic police reforms.
The director was also accused of having sacked 15 officers, including two assistant commissioners of police, during his tenure as a provincial police boss.
4. Former Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino Wahongo
Mr Owino amused the panel when he said that he was the only solution to the problems affecting the police service and asked the panel not to be surprised about the millions of shillings in his account.
He even told the panel to expect more millions in case there would be another vetting of him this year, as he was planning to make more from his fish farm where he is about to harvest 20,000 tilapias which will sell at Sh250 each.
“Unilever and National Housing Corporation have been sending me between Sh9 million and Sh10 million from time to time,” he said.
“I am the solution to the problems police officers are facing and I am sure God will make someone see that. I am the change the Kenya Police Service needs, not unless I die,” he told the panel in Nakuru on March 5.
Mr Owino said he had learnt how to make extra money from his agricultural practices as he could not survive on salary alone. He said he had earned his money genuinely and would encourage other officers to do the same.
He agreed corruption was rampant in the police service but quickly added that this mirrored the situation in the society.
“I am a patriotic Kenyan and I have several investments,” Nyandarua North OCPD Benjamin Onsongo told the Johnston Kavuludi-led vetting panel that he had made Sh21 million gross income from his businesses.
Mr Kavuludi had asked him to explain how Sh875,000 made it to his account every month yet he earned about Sh70,000 as an OCPD.
Another panellist, Mr Ronald Musengi, asked him why he preferred to remain in the police service yet he could live comfortably from his “businesses” without his salary as a senior police officer.
“I am a patriotic Kenyan and I love my job,” Mr Onsongo told the panel. “After all, I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the police service that pays me the salary I have invested in businesses.”
The police boss said he wished to work for the police service and use his knowledge to make Kenya a better place.
He disclosed that since he was recruited more than three decades ago, he had built rental houses in Kisii, Rongai, Nairobi, Eldoret and Nakuru.
His wife, who is an electrical engineer, quit her job to manage their family’s businesses, he told the panel. He also said he owned half of the shares of a private security firm, Benori Guards Services, and that he had a bakery in Kisii Town.
In the second part of a series on how police mint millions, officers’ spouses are conduits of wealth but others portrayed as source of anguish.
7. Augustus Maundu Mutia
When Senior Superintendent of Police Augustus Maundu Mutia appeared before the National Police Service Commission panel on Tuesday March 17, he was asked to explain what he did with Sh24,000 paid by Hass Petroleum Station for services offered by two Administration Police officers whom he assigned.
The panel claimed they had information that a sub-county commander under the command of SSP Mutia wrote to the owners of the petrol station demanding the monthly payment. He was tight-lipped.
He was then asked to explain the origin of the hundreds of thousands of shillings in cheques deposited in his account from his spouse’s bookshop and printing business in Nairobi.
He said that he and his wife were running a business that was “booming” but could not explain the nature of his “esteemed” clients.
The panel claimed they had evidence that Sh7 million had been deposited in his account through cheques and the cash was withdrawn immediately after deposit.
Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi asked Mr Mutia to explain the origin of each cheque transacted in the business and why the cheques are not deposited in his wife’s account since he claimed she owns the bookshop and printing business in Nairobi.
8. John Partrick Ochieng – Senior Assistant Inspector-General
Mr Ochieng, who at the time of his vetting on December 17, 2013, was the Director of the Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms, was taken to task to explain the source of the Sh3.7 million in his account and why he was earning two salaries.
The commissioners asked him why he was still earning a salary as a police officer. Former Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo asked him if he had written to the police service personnel section telling them that he was earning two salaries.
“I have written to the Personnel Section but they continue placing money in my account. I wrote to them,” he said.
A member of the panel, Mr Joseph Kaguthi, read a letter written to Mr Ochieng by the then Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere asking him to refund Sh3.6 million and warning him of the consequences of earning two salaries.
He answered that he had been in and out of the offices asking them to pay him what is only due to him but it had not been effected.
“I will pay you back what you need from me,” he said.
9. Interpol’s National Central Bureau Chief Vitalis Okumu
When asked why he had failed to submit his statements to the vetting panel on Friday, June 13, 2014, the Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police said that his wife had refused to give him the bank statement.
He said he had asked his wife to hand him the statements on time but she had refused to give him when the vetting date arrived.
“When I asked her about the bank statement, she told me not to disturb her, and that she did not want to be connected to any vetting. I do not know if she earns a salary,” said the officer.
He said that he had pleaded with her and she later agreed when he told her that he risked being dismissed from the service.
He was among the officers of the ranks of Assistant Commissioner of Police and Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police to be vetted in March last year, but their results were withheld after more complaints against them surfaced, prompting further questioning.
They were recalled on June 13 for further vetting and were cleared to continue serving.
Among those who were cleared together with Mr Okumu at that time were former police spokesman Eric Kiraithe, Washington Ajuonga (Marsabit AP), Pius Barasa of Inspection Section, David Bunei (GSU Training School), Pius Macharia (Machakos County CID), David Cheruiyot (Kisumu Police), Patrick Ndunda (CID Headquarters) and Francis Kirathe (Nakuru AP).
The Interpol chief also complained about the trauma and anxiety he had undergone since the results were withheld.
“I have had it rough. Friday, I got a call from Tanzania asking me why I had to be vetted again,” Mr Okumu said.
10. Senior Superintendent Joshua Ongoro Aseto
This Senior Superintendent of Police cried before the panel, forcing it to take a break, when he was asked to disclose how he made the millions in his account.
Mr Aseto wept as the panel sought to know why he hardly makes any withdrawals from the account, which had a whopping Sh8.5 million.
When the panel resumed, the officer, who is based at the Kenya Police Service’s Vigilance House headquarters, said he was moved to tears when he recalled how he struggled to make the money.
“The Sh8.5 million in a fixed deposit account was genuinely earned. It’s my hard-earned savings and I vowed never to misuse any money I make since I was raised in poverty,” he said.
The officer who is attached to the liaison department in the office of the Director of Operations started narrating his journey from poverty to millionaire.
“I earned Sh800 a month when I secured my first job as an untrained teacher in 1984 after my ‘O’ Level exams. Getting absorbed into the police service in 1986 came as a miracle as my pay shot up to Sh2,500 a month,” he said.
“I had to scavenge on what others ate in school because my father, who was a stone cutter, could hardly make ends meet,” said the tearful senior officer.
11. Former Machakos County CID boss Pius Macharia
“I saved my money after a trip to Singapore for investigations,” CID Chief, Pius Macharia told the commission during his vetting in May last year.
The panel wanted to know the origin of the cash deposited in the officer’s account at Equity Bank, Taj Mall branch in Nairobi.
He explained that they were dollars he had saved during the trip.
He was among the nine officers who had been recalled for further interrogation after an initial vetting two months earlier.
Mr Macharia told the panel that his wife of 27 years had refused to give him her bank details, a requirement from the vetting panel.
“I requested the statements at least four times. She has maintained that the account belongs to her,” said Mr Macharia.
When he failed to convince her to hand in the documents, Mr Macharia had to request a sworn affidavit indicating that she would not submit the documents to the panel.
The nine officers, among them, Mr Macharia, were recalled on June 13 for further vetting and were cleared.
Two other senior police officers, among them Mr Kiraithe , recounted frustrations they underwent in trying to convince their spouses to furnish them with bank statements required by the vetting panel.
