College principals with less than 600 students face sack

RECRUITMENT: Bumula MP Mwambu Mabonga and Bungoma deputy governor Ngome Kibanani
Image: JOHN NALANYA

Each TVET head expected to mobilize students or lose the job

In Summary

• Technical education director Tom Mulati says all training institutions should have over 600 students
• Calls on students who didn’t join universities to take up science, engineering and technology courses

The government has issued a directive to principals of Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions with less than 600 students by September 2020 that they will be sacked.

Speaking during the recruitment of students to join various TVETs in Western region from Bumula subcounty, technical education director Tom Mulati said all training institutions should have over 600 students to meet the target set by the government.

“Even if you were posted to a technical training institution yesterday, make sure you have 600 students to protect your job or else you will be sacked. Recruit enough students now,” Mulati said.

He called on the students who didn’t join universities to take up science, engineering and technology courses because they are marketable.

“I encourage many of you to take science, engineering and technology courses because that is where the world is heading to. I ask girls to venture into engineering like building and civil engineering courses, mechanical, electrical engineering for you to succeed. Traditionally they were considered only for men,” he said.

A total of 2,840 students were recruited at Bumula stadium to join various technical institutions and take up different courses as follows:

Sigalagala (258), Sang’alo (399), Bungoma North (28), Bushangala (71), Riat (351), Okame (100), Bumbe (17), Musakasa (1,072), Shambarere (251), Kisiwa (281) and Webuye West (12).

Mulati said fewer girls were enrolling in such courses and called on them to take advantage of the opportunity and favourably compete men.

He pointed out that TVET institutions were offering courses like building and construction, electrical engineering, hair dressing and beauty therapy, food and beverage that can earn one a living right away.

“In TVET institutions we don’t believe that there are no jobs. What we need is an entrepreneurial mind and we can scout for opportunities in good environments,” he said.

Bumula constituency has Musakasa and Maurice Otunga technical training institutes.

Mulati asked secondary school principals to release the certificates of former students whose documents are still held because of fee arrears.

“If you are withholding students' KCSE certificates you are going against the presidential directive and you will be disciplined,” he said.

Mulati stated that the government needs 100 per cent transition of students from secondary schools to universities and colleges.

He stated that the students will benefit from the government funding to enable them carry on with their courses. This includes capitation of Sh30,000 and Helb funding of Sh40,000 yearly.

Bungoma deputy governor Charles Ngome stated that it was only education that would help kick out poverty.

“For you to live a good life, value education. Education defines your future because you will secure a job that will change your fortunes,” he said.

He called on parents to support their children’s talents because they could define their future.

“If your child is an artist, support him. If they are good in anything, let’s market and expose them so that they can land opportunities that can help them in future,” Ngome said.

Bumula MP Mwambu Mabonga said he would make sure recruitment of students is an annual event so that many of them can take TVET courses and better their lives.

“We must empower youths by enrolling them in technical courses or else we are sitting on a volcano that is ready to erupt any time and it will be dangerous to the society,” he said.

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If you really fancy a great and working Kenya, do it yourself

The beauty of Mombasa is tainted by uncollected garbage piled on Mombasa Avenue on November 25, 2019. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• As we go into 2020 and trudging towards 2022, it’s important for us to learn not to be followers but leaders — that is, of our lives.
• Don’t ask what the country can do for you; ask what you can do for your communities, and yourself, to improve the quality of life.

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By KALTUM GUYO
More by this Author

The French rugby team was advised by fans watching from home during the 2019 World Cup in Tokyo that, if they had any hope of advancing in the tournament, they should sack the coach and manage themselves.

The frustration felt by the fans was that despite France being a global rugby powerhouse, its game in the preliminaries was lacklustre due to the coach’s poor decisions.

South Africa and England, who played in the finals, came in with a different mindset and stronger management teams, which played a big role in their advancement.

South Africa took the medal home, lifting the spirits of an economically depressed country. Suffice it to say, France reached the quarter-finals.

Many a times, we leave the main role of managing our lives in the hands of those we elect and give them opportunities, time and again, to do so even when it’s clear that they care less about us but themselves.

What Kenyans perhaps need to realise is that the onus is on them to have clean streets, safer neighbourhoods and excellent hospitals and schools. After all, they are the service users.

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VOLUNTEERS

I saw first-hand at the Coast General Hospital how Kenyans can get together to support one another in the face of hardship.

Despite what you read in the media, the situation at the hospital, like many others I have visited in the country, is dire.

The shortage of nurses was evident. Instead of waiting for one nurse to go around the 30-plus patients, strangers helped in turning over patients they had never met before, got them in and out of bed, fetched water and food for the immobile ones and ran errands — including processing NHIF for them — for those with no relatives!

I witnessed all this while staying at the hospital with my ailing mother. My contribution was in cleaning a neglected but fully functioning commode.

A few bottles of antiseptics later, it became the wheelchair and moving toilet desperately needed by immobile patients. I hope it is still in use.

In a dogmatic country, citizens would always get excuses as to why they feel neglected.

Either funds are unavailable from the same people stealing them or use state machinery to silence those critical of the failures in service delivery.

QUESTIONABLE LEADERSHIP

That apart, it’s still important to realise that citizens are the architects of their own destiny and better communities.

Hence, if Kenyans, indeed, wish for a greatly functional Kenya, they need to take the reins for socio-economic success by pulling together to make sure schools are equipped for their children and hospitals cleaned up ready for their use.

Looking at how our leaders have let us down, it’s easy to see that politics is overrated.

Many of our countrymen and women get maimed, tortured and killed in the name of politics but, after the election violence, all Kenyans experience poverty spikes, wanting healthcare for the poor, insecurity and runaway corruption.

One is then left wondering what Kenyan politics is for. What or whom are Kenyan leaders leading in the face of economic despair?

With the confusing Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report, ‘Handshake’ malarkey and big buck projects over lack of investment in social programmes, I’m no longer sure whether the country is coming or going.

SUCCESS STORIES

Amid all the negative news and toxic politics, however, positive stories appear from somewhere to warm our hearts.

Teacher Tabichi quietly put his head down and taught his pupils while sacrificing his salary to buy them study materials.

This, in an area supposedly with an MP, who should have used CDF funds to support the school in the first place!

Athletes like Eliud Kipchoge become the icons and ambassadors for the good and great that Kenya has to offer.

All the leaders are left to do is hang on the tailcoats of self-made heroes and bask in the glory of something they never invested in.

‘Stadiums’ has become a byword for empty election promises and not a springboard for sporting prowess.

Perfect communal spirit by Kenyans is found on social media through KoT (Kenyans on Twitter), whom I give my alternative Nobel Prize.

They have been resolute in fighting injustice with the use of just a keyboard. They even shut up Donald Trump (for crying out loud!) following his ‘hotbed of terror’ comment on Kenya.

BE PROACTIVE

If I had a second alternative Nobel, I would give it to lone nurses and doctors who turn up and care for patients in warlike situations in our hospitals with just basic resources at hand.

As we go into 2020 and trudging towards 2022, it’s important for us to learn not to be followers but leaders — that is, of our lives.

Don’t ask what the country can do for you; ask what you can do for your communities, and yourself, to improve the quality of life.

Let us learn to sack the ineffective coach and manage our lives by being the best leaders and elect the leaders that can lead. In the meantime, Happy New Year!

Ms Guyo is a legal researcher. kdiguyo@gmail.com @kdiguyo

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Glowing tributes at burial of NCIC vice-chair Fatuma Tabwara

Mourners carry the body of Ms Fatuma Tabwara, who was the vice chair of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), during the burial at Kombani in Matuga, Kwale County, on December 30, 2019. PHOTO | BRIAN MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By MISHI GONGO
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Leaders gave glowing tributes in honour of NCIC vice-chairperson, Ms Fatuma Tabwara, at her funeral in Kwale County on Monday.

Ms Tabwara was pronounced dead at Diani Beach Hospital at 10am on Sunday, after collapsing at a relative's wedding in the county.

She is survived by her husband, Mr Fuad Said Gofwa, two daughters and two sons.

VIPs

Commissioners of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) were among those who attended the burial at Kombani in Matuga.

Also present were Agriculture Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga, Governor Salim Mvurya, Commissioner Salim Mrina, County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo, Matuga member of Parliament Kassim Tandaza and Mudzo Nzili, the former chairman of the Kenya National Union of Teachers.

Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya speaks at the burial of Ms Fatuma Tabwara, who was the vice chair of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), at Kombani in Matuga, Kwale County, on December 30, 2019. PHOTO | BRIAN MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

ICON

Governor Mvurya described Ms Tabwara as a great leader and an icon in the Kwale community.

"She always preached peace and unity. Let us not forget what Ms Tabwara always reminded us - to avoid joining movements that seek to divide us,” he said.

He further urged the people to elect leaders based on their leadership skills, not tribes and political affiliations. 

Mourners are pictured at the burial of Ms Fatuma Tabwara, who was the vice chair of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), at Kombani in Matuga, Kwale County, on December 30, 2019. PHOTO | BRIAN MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

HUGE GAP

Commissioner Wambui Nyutu, who read the NCIC's eulogy, said Ms Tabwara "left a gap that no one can fill".

"It will take us a long time to come to terms with this [shocking] loss,” she said.

Ms Tabwara served at the commission for just two months but made significant contributions.

Ms Nyutu described her as a true patriot who gave all her time and expertise in serving Kenyans, both at the grassroots and national levels, irrespective of their ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds.

“She was a resourceful person whose passion was to nurture the youth and women in all aspects of integration, peaceful coexistence as well as cohesion. Kwale County, our hearts and prayers are with you at this difficult time," she said.

Quoting US ambassador Adlai Stevenson II on a man and his contributions, she added, "It is not in the years that life counts; it is the life in the years."

SOURCE

Farmers in Kinangop counting losses after snail invasion

Farmers at a cabbage farm attacked by snails in Kinangop, Nyandarua County on December 27, 2019. PHOTO | WAIKWA MAINA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• “They are multiplying very fast. Their eggs are all over the farm. We have tried to use table salt as directed by agronomists but it won't work. It’s not possible to sprinkle the salt in the entire farm,” said Mr Njau, a peas farmer.

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By WAIKWA MAINA
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Destructive snails have invaded farms in Kinangop, Nyandarua County, causing massive destruction to horticultural crops.

Ms Janet Njambi, a farmer from Githabai Ward, has lost two acres of cabbages that she had anticipated to harvest in February to the pests.

The farmer expected to earn between Sh400,000 and Sh500 000 from the crop, but she is now counting losses and might not recover the cost of production. 

She says the pests have also invaded their homes and become a nuisance.

EXCESSIVE RAINS

“Horticultural farming is the main source of livelihood in Kinangop. The region has a favourable climate and weather patterns for horticultural farming but the excessive rains this year have attracted the destructive snails,” said Mr Michael Njau.

A cabbage destroyed by snails in Kinangop, Nyandarua County on December 27, 2019. PHOTO | WAIKWA MAINA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Mr Njau's one-acre peas farm has been completely destroyed by the creatures.

The farmer says he first spotted the snails early December but was unaware the situation would get out of hand causing him and other farmers great losses.

COUNTING LOSSES

“They are multiplying very fast. Their eggs are all over the farm. We have tried to use table salt as directed by agronomists but it won't work. It’s not possible to sprinkle the salt in the entire farm,” said Mr Njau.

Another farmer, Mr John Kihiu, says the invasive snails are drilling holes inside the tubers to lay their eggs .

Mr Daniel Wanjiku, an agronomist, says the snails pose a great threat to the area’s ecosystem if not contained in time. PHOTO | WAIKWA MAINA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Mr Daniel Wanjiku, an agronomist, says the snails pose a great threat to the area’s ecosystem if not contained in time.

“Once done with the crops and the weather does not allow them to remain in the farms, they migrate to river banks, attacking the vegetation and trees. They also transmit nematodes and worms harmful to human beings. They have great economic, human health and environment effects,” said the agricultural officer.
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Berlin 1884: Remembering the conference that divided Africa

The conference of Berlin, as illustrated in 'Illustrierte Zeitung', 1884 [WikiCommons]

by Patrick Gathara

15 Nov 2019

135 years ago today, European leaders sat around a horseshoe-shaped table to set the rules for Africa's colonisation.

On the afternoon of Saturday, November 15, 1884, an international conference was opened by the chancellor of the newly-created German Empire at his official residence on Wilhelmstrasse, in Berlin. Sat around a horseshoe-shaped table in a room overlooking the garden with representatives from every European country, apart from Switzerland, as well as those from the United States and the Ottoman Empire. The only clue as to the purpose of the November gathering of white men was hung on the wall - a large map of Africa "drooping down like a question mark" as Nigerian historian, Professor Godfrey Uzoigwe, would comment.

Including a short break for Christmas and the New Year, the West African Conference of Berlin would last 104 days, ending on February 26, 1885. In the 135 years since, the conference has come to represent the late 19th-century European Scramble and Partition of the continent. In the popular imagination, the delegates are hunched over a map, armed with rulers and pencils, sketching out national borders on the continent with no idea of what existed on the ground they were parcelling out. Yet this is mistaken. The Berlin Conference did not begin the scramble. That was well under way. Neither did it partition the continent. Only one state, the short-lived horror that was the Congo Free State, came out of it - though strictly speaking it was not actually a creation of the conference.

It did something much worse, though, with consequences that would reverberate across the years and be felt until today. It established the rules for the conquest and partition of Africa, in the process legitimising the ideas of Africa as a playground for outsiders, its mineral wealth as a resource for the outside world not for Africans and its fate as a matter not to be left to Africans.

From the very start, the conference laid out the order of priorities. "The Powers are in the presence of three interests: That of the commercial and industrial nations, which a common necessity compels to the research of new outlets. That of the States and of the Powers summoned to exercise over the regions of the Congo an authority which will have burdens corresponding to their rights. And, lastly, that which some generous voices have already commended to your solicitude - the interests of the native populations." It also resolutely refused to consider the question of sovereignty, and the legitimacy of laying claim to someone else's land and resources.

Uzoigwe notes that: "Bismarck … stated in his opening remarks that delegates had not been assembled to discuss matters of sovereignty either of African states or of the European powers in Africa." It was no accident that there were no Africans at the table - their opinions were not considered necessary. The efforts of the Sultan of Zanzibar to get himself invited to the party were summarily laughed off by the British.

American journalist Daniel De Leon described the conference as "an event unique in the history of political science ... Diplomatic in form, it was economic in fact." And it is true that while it was dressed up as a humanitarian summit to look at the welfare of locals, its agenda was almost purely economic. Few on the continent or in the African diaspora were fooled. A week before it closed, the Lagos Observer declared that "the world had, perhaps, never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale." Six years later, another editor of a Lagos newspaper comparing the legacy conference to the slave trade said: "A forcible possession of our land has taken the place of a forcible possession of our person." Theodore Holly, the first black Protestant Episcopal Bishop in the US, condemned the delegates as having "come together to enact into law, national rapine, robbery and murder".

The outcome of the conference was the General Act signed and ratified by all but one of the 14 nations at the table, the US being the sole exception. Some of its main features were the establishment of a regime of free trade stretching across the middle of Africa, the development of which became the rationale for the recognition of the Congo Free State and its subsequent 13-year horror, the abolition of the overland slave trade as well as the principle of "effective occupation".

Though the attempt to create a free trade area in Africa and therefore keep the continent from becoming both a spark for, and a theatre of conflict between the European powers, was ultimately doomed. The principle of "effective occupation" was to become the catalyst for military conquest of the African continent with far-reaching consequences for its inhabitants.

At the time of the conference, 80 percent of Africa remained under traditional and local control. The Europeans only had influence on the coast. Following it, they started grabbing chunks of land inland, ultimately creating a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that was superimposed over indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. However, to get their claims over African land accepted, European states had to demonstrate that they could actually administer the area.

Often, military victory proved to be the easy part. To govern, they found they had to contend with a confusing milieu of fluid identities and cultures and languages. The Europeans thus set about reorganising Africans into units they could understand and control. As Professor Terence Ranger noted, the colonial period was marked "by systematic inventions of African traditions - ethnicity, customary law, 'traditional' religion. Before colonialism Africa was characterised by pluralism, flexibility, multiple identity; after it, African identities of 'tribe', gender and generation were all bounded by the rigidities of invented tradition."

That first-ever international conference on Africa established a template for how the world deals with the continent. Today, Africa is still seen primarily as a source for raw materials for the outside world and an arena for them to compete over. Conferences about the continent are rarely held on the continent itself and rarely care about the views of ordinary Africans.

The sight of African heads of state assembling in foreign capitals to beg for favours is a re-enactment of the Sultan of Zanzibar's pleading to attend a conference where he would be the main course.

Despite achieving independence for the most part in the 1950s and 1960s, many African countries have continued along the destructive path laid out in Berlin. Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere declared: "We have artificial 'nations' carved out at the Berlin Conference in 1884, and today we are struggling to build these nations into stable units of human society... we are in danger of becoming the most Balkanised continent of the world." Ethnicity and tribalism continue to be the bane of African politics. "The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one," wrote Jan Nijman, Peter Muller and Harm de Blij in their book, Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts. "The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent. By the time independence returned to Africa… the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily."

Now, 135 years after Berlin, it is perhaps time for introspection. While it is impossible to turn back the clock, Africans would do well to reflect on what has happened since. Teaching the real history of the subjugation of the continent would help counter the myths of "ancient hatreds" that are said to fuel the conflicts on the continent. And Africans could decide to get together on the continent to debate and decide on the relationship they want with the rest of the world rather than always having that dictated to them from abroad.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patrick Gathara

Patrick Gathara is a communications consultant, writer, and award-winning political cartoonist based in Nairobi.

SOURCE

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'Take a mirror. Look into it. That is what Jesus looks like'

By EUNICE KAAMARA
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Michael Job, aka Jesus of Kiserian. PHOTO | COURTESY 

Christmas is the most celebrated religious holiday across the world. Yet it is not the most significant event in the Christian calendar. Easter is.

We know why: Christmas is a happy season, for “unto us a child is born”. Never mind that the only reason the child was born was to be hanged on a cross!

DESCRIPTION

Jesus, is the most well-known figure in human history, among Christians and non-Christians alike. Joan Taylor, a professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Period Judaism at Kings College, London, says “Jesus is so familiar that he can be recognised on pancakes or pieces of toast.”

Yes. Among the latest claims was that in April, 2014, the face of Jesus appeared on a pancake at the Cowgirl Cafe in Norco, California!

But do we know the identity of Jesus? If he were to appear on the streets of Nairobi, would Kenyans recognise him?

There is no physical description of Jesus in the Gospels, the official records that we have of his life. So how can anybody know that what they see is the face of Jesus?

When we strip ourselves of hypocrisy, we acknowledge that skin colour is the most basic human identity marker. So what colour is Jesus?

AVERAGE HEIGHT

But first things first. There are two “Jesuses’ No. I’m not a heretic. There is the historical Jesus and the messianic Jesus.

The historical Jesus is that of flesh and blood born to Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem slightly more than 2,000 years ago.

The messianic Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Christ who always existed as the Word, which was with God, and which was God.

Accepting our humanity, let’s limit ourselves to the historical Jesus, that is, the one who has “colour”, whom we can see, touch, and understand.

If Kenyans heard that Jesus would be in Nairobi on Christmas Day, many would flock the streets looking for a handsome, White, 30-year-old man. He would have a well-trimmed, long or average beard, complete with a moustache, long, blond, curly hair, with blue eyes, a long thin nose, and would be of average or above average height.

WHITE KANZU

He would be wearing an ankle-length white kanzu with a long, hand-knit gown on top and a wide, cloth belt. He would also be wearing flat leather sandals.

Jesus would be characteristic of the kind of a person Kenyans adore: with powerful, rich, and classy.

So as Kenyans look for Jesus, they would be rehearsing a popular Kikuyu song, Maya ni mabataro makwa (these are my needs): an office job; that V8, a 10-bedroom house with multiple sitting rooms, not to mention a “walk in” wardrobe; a swimming pool…

But, sorry, that’s not he. Jesus would be black.

Both geographic and genetic evidence point more to a Black Jesus than a White one. Wasn’t Jesus a Jew from the lineage of Judah, a Semite, all right, but with two Black wives?

INTERMARRIED

Solomon, the son of David of Judah, was half- black and half-Jewish. His love for black wives and mistresses is well recorded in the Bible. He dedicated a song to some Black woman. Reread “Song of Solomon”.

During the time of the historical Jesus, many Black people intermarried with the Israelites.

It is unlikely that Jesus would be handsome (whatever that means). Prophet Isaiah (53:2) affirms that he “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him”.

Jesus did not stand out, otherwise, it would not have been necessary for Judas to identify him with a kiss.

Jesus would most probably have kept his hair and beard short, perhaps even clean shaven. It is not feasible that a man with no fixed abode would have kept his hair long, with the high prevalence of lice in his time.

ORDINARY

Having been a carpenter like his father, Jesus’ palms would be hard, with blisters. And like his hands, his face would have scars from bruises commonly incurred in carpentry workshops.

We read that all messianic prophecies in the Bible were fulfilled. Therefore, there is no way Jesus would have been dressed like a king with long, pure white linen!

Joseph and Mary were ordinary folks, which explains why Jesus was born in a manger.

So why do we have a different image of Jesus? Do not be fooled. The human mind is not creative. It’s only innovative. No human can create, even a mental image, without using some “raw materials”. 

To build the image of Jesus, we rely on the stories we have heard, the paintings, drawings and other images of the historical Jesus that others have presented to us. Unfortunately, the systematically recorded history of Christianity has consistently presented to us a White male, handsome, rich, and royal.

PERCEPTIONS

Like all history, Christian history is selective, subjective, if you wish. It depends on the story teller. And the teller of Christian history has been a handsome, white skinned male wearing a long beard, with long blonde curly hair…

Many would argue that establishing the facts about the historical Jesus is neither here nor there. They would rather we focused on the messianic Jesus.

True. Drawings, paintings, and carvings are merely mental images. But mental images matter. Before anything exists outside the human mind, it must exist in the mind. And before it exists in the mind, it must be presented to the mind in some form. A chicken-or-egg puzzle.

Presentations and representations have such an impact on human perceptions of reality that perceptions are often more real than reality!

For the child of Joseph and Mary to be the saviour of the world, he had to be White, a ram, not ewe; his name had to be Jesus (not Y’shua), and he had to be born on December 25, in deep winter.

DIVINE DESIGN

Christianity has systematically been reconstructed from a traditional African religion to a political party dominated mainly by White men! Or could this be by divine design? Would Christianity have spread as much, but for racism?

Christmas is a time to reflect on African identity. Before you pick up the rhetoric, ‘I met the Lord Jesus Christ in 1965 ….’, it’s important to meet the authentic historical Jesus first. Take a mirror. Look into it. That is what Jesus looks like.

Eunice Kamaara is a professor of religion at Moi University. Her contact is ekamaara@gmail.com

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How Kenya Power staff stole millions in bills scandal

A Kenya Power worker fixes a transformer in Nyeri. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By VINCENT ACHUKA

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Rogue Kenya Power staff created and gave rights to non-employees to access company systems to manipulate bills and engineer fraudulent tokens that led to the loss of hundreds of millions of shillings through a well-orchestrated scandal. The scam lasted a whole year, the Nation has learnt.

STILL FREE

By the time the fraud was detected, thousands of unsuspecting Kenyans had paid electricity bills that were up to five times what they had consumed. Many others had bought tokens through a thriving black market created by rogue staff that almost crippled the power distributor.

Kenya Power has never recovered from this well-calculated scheme that ran through the whole of 2018, and the staff who orchestrated the fraud are still free after being suspended or fired from work. To date, it is not clear how much money was lost, but insiders believe it could run into almost Sh1 billion, if the refunds the affected customers were to be paid are factored in.

Today, the Nation brings you the whole story of one of Kenya’s most brazen fraud schemes that began from a deliberate move not to install a verification system when the power firm was switching to a new payment platform in 2017. The fraudsters targeted both the prepaid and post-paid systems, which are both linked to the Integrated Customer Management System (inCMS) installed in 2017.

Since 1996, Kenya Power had been using an Integrated Customer Service (ICS) created by the Spanish company Indra Kenya. The same firm was contracted in 2017 to create a new system, and came up with inCMS.

LOOPHOLE

The new system had a module known as a One Time Charge (OTC) that could debit and carry forward money owed by a customer before they pay for the purpose of reconciliation of accounts, making it easy for the company’s accounting department to calculate revenues.

For example, if a customer’s account was due with Sh10,000, the OTC module would automatically debit Sh10,000 and then carry the balance forward so that once the customer paid the money owed would automatically drop to zero.

Officers from the power company saw a loophole in the system and started creating fake OTC charges by overcharging or undercharging customers through a computer linked to the system from Kisii, and then approaching the same customers for negotiations.

An investigation report by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), which has been presented to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), notes the scheme was started by a Kenya Power officer who was based at the ICT department.

REGIONS

“He created a user known as Edgar Odhiambo Ojienda, who was not a Kenya Power staff in the active directory,” says the report. “Mr Ojienda was an employee of Belken Agencies Masters, which was contracted by Kenya Power between 2014 and 2017 to design and maintain power lines.”

Mr Ojienda then recruited several brokers who represented several regions, and the only region the cartel was unable to infiltrate was the Coast.

Ojienda covered South Nyanza and the Rift Valley while Mr Gordon Okwach, who CCTV identified as a commoner around Stima Plaza in Parklands, covered Nairobi.

The Western region was covered by Ms Christabel Akech, who also recruited another person, only identified so far as Judith. Most of the customers who benefited from the scheme identified Mr Ojienda as having helped them with their bills.

OVER-BILLED

In order to make their scheme work, the fraudsters identified customers who usually got high bills and paid frequently and then over-billed them.

When the customers went to Kenya Power offices to complain, they were introduced to brokers who were usually lurking around banking halls.

The brokers then offered to help deal with the bills for a fee. Once the customer paid, the information was relayed to Mr Ojienda, who had been given overriding access to the system, and he immediately reduced the bill to zero. The money, however, went into the pockets of the fraudsters and employees who were part of the scheme.

“The scenario was duplicated over and over again, especially to large power consumers like schools, hotels and factories. Negotiators were sent to them for talks on how to lower their power bills,” says the DCI.

“At some point Mr Ojienda fraudulently rebilled an account (DM Concrete) Sh3.6 million at a cost of Sh1.2 million kickback.”

BACKDATING

The DCI report is the result of an eight-month investigation, which has revealed that Mr Ojienda alone orchestrated a direct loss of Sh58 million to Kenya Power in 2018.

Bombarded with questions on why power bills had risen astronomically, Kenya Power at some point claimed that the inflated bills were as a result of migration to the Integrated Customer Management System and the backdating of bills in order to recover an outstanding Sh10.1 billion owed by customers.

The inflation of bills, they argued, was necessary because it did not want to raise power charges in 2017 since it was an election year and it had to recover the money that had caused a huge hole in their financial statements.

A separate syndicate attacked the prepaid system in a scheme that was also orchestrated by Kenya Power’s IT staff, including management, by not installing a token validation system.

MESSAGE

The power distributor has a system known as RADIS that is domiciled at its main server, called EVGE. Once customers pay for tokens through mobile money, the information is sent to RADIS for verification before the token is sent back to the customer as a text message.

In order for a token to be generated, RADIS has to receive the customer’s name, meter number, amount paid, and the mobile money transaction reference number.

“Fraudsters knew that Kenya Power did not have a validator to know if it was receiving genuine transactions from M-Pesa. This was in case a customer complained that their tokens had not been generated through 888880,” the report says.

The code 888880 is the paybill number that prepaid customers use to pay via M-Pesa.

MASTERMIND

“There was a failure to create a validator and this was a design to create a loophole for stealing,” says the DCI. “Rogue individuals altered genuine M-Pesa reference numbers by replacing the last digit and consequently generating irregular tokens and selling the same.”

At the heart of the scheme, DCI says, was a programme developer who worked under ICT acting general manager at Kenya Power. The mastermind of the scam, detectives believe, was a Mr Albert Komen, who was in 2017 identified by the Banking Fraud Unit as one of the leading online fraudsters in Kenya.

Mr Komen is currently in court, with other suspects, facing charges of orchestrating the loss of Sh3.9 billion by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

He is also part of a gang linked to American jailbird Larry Peckham II that attempted to hack the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) before the 2017 elections.

SO BRAZEN

After generating the fraudulent tokens, Mr Komen sent out brokers disguised as Kenya Power staff to look for unsuspecting Kenyans who wanted to buy cheap electricity.

A Sh1,000 token, for example, could be bought at Sh500. The hackers were at some point so brazen that they openly sold tokens on social media.

The second way cash was lost on the prepaid system was by replacing tokens of faulty metres that did not exist. Fake employees were created and given rights to search for customers whose meters had been made to intentionally reject tokens. Once identified, the customers were made to negotiate for the tokens at a lower price.

More than 2,000 customers benefited from the scam.

SOURCE