The government has been ordered to pay Sh3.1 billion to a contractor who repaired roads in Nairobi's CBD in 1997.

Kabuito sued the government in 2008 after the the Ministry of Local Government refused to pay it for the works. The ministry insisted that verbal instructions given to Kabuito by its permanent secretary could not stand as a valid contract. Kabuito, owned by tycoon Amip Rajendra Patel, insisted that the ministry owed it Sh115 million, but the amount ballooned to Sh1.12 billion when it sued owing to interest.

The amount stood at Sh3.17 billion when Justice Sergon delivered his judgment.

The judge's landmark decision has reaffirmed that verbal agreements can stand as valid contracts recognised by law.

He also ruled that the government cannot refuse to settle a contract sum on grounds that procurement procedures were not followed. Patel in his court filings said that it was then normal for a PS to issue verbal instructions even in public procurement, because the government bureaucrats at the time were very powerful.

The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) is holding 984,102 bags of maize worth nearly Sh3.1 billion that is unfit for human consumption in the wake of a scandal that saw the agency pay fake farmers billions of shillings.

A report, acting NCPB managing director Joseph Liguko tabled in Parliament shows that 1,551,027 bags of maize purchased at Moi’s Bridge silo and 220,358 bags bought at Kisumu silos were moulding with high heat and insect damage.

The moulding could see the maize get infected by the deadly aflatoxin, which is linked to liver cancer.

The board is supposed to buy maize from farmers but went ahead to buy the grains from traders who acquired the commodity in Uganda.

The suspected interference of the weighbridges used to detect the number of kilos brought in by traders at the NCPB depots may also have led the government into declaring the quantity of maize that it does not have.

The Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), wrote to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and copied the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate Dr Kidero, nine county officials, directors of four pharmaceutical companies and bank officials. The officials are suspected to have moved a total of Sh7,761,474,162.38 in large withdrawals. Money was debited from the accounts mainly through structured cash withdrawals.

Swift move

This has been one of the major Tangatanga cashcows where they have been eating bila adabu. He is in that camp.