PIC summons former KPA-MD Gichiri about SGR agreements

The former managing director of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Gichiri Ndua, was introduced to Public Investments C. loadedCommittee to shed more light on the project contracts between the standard gauge railway (SGR) and the KPA.

Committee chairman Abdullswamad Nassir said he had also summoned former general manager for Board and Legal Services, Muthoni Gatere, to shed light on the situation.

According to information provided to the committee, the two added their signatures for the government to purchase loans in an agreement with China Exim Bank for the start of the project.

He made the remarks when Amb John Mwangemi, acting executive director of KPA, appeared before the committee to respond to review inquiries on port projects at English Point Marina in Mombasa.

The committee chairman said they would also summon Transport Cabinet Minister James Wainaina Macharia as the KPA was on his file prior to his transfer to the Treasury Department.

Nassir pointed out that the May 2014 Preferential Loan Agreement came to Ksh 161.6 billion and the same day Buyer Loan Agreement for Ksh 202.36 billion came to Ksh 363.96 billion.

He argued that the information available to the committee from subsidiary contracts and the actual loan agreements is not available for review.

“As soon as the agreements were executed, the lender, China Exim Bank, entered into ancillary agreements to secure loan repayments from the government, which doubled as the borrower,” he said.

Nassir announced in 2014 that it was about the delivery and transport of freight to the inland container depot Embakasi with the standard-gauge railway.

He pointed to payment arrangements in the agreement, which related to two loans for the SGR project Mombasa to Nairobi in 2014 between the foreign bank and the government and KRC and KPA.