A senior editor at one of the leading Daily Newspapers was bought a brand new car and given millions of shillings as bribery not to publish any corruption related stories involving Nairobi city county finance department.
The millions were to be shared with other editors from the various mainstream media.
The editor who resigned thereafter to venture into private business has been in constant touch with embattled Chief Finance Officer Asha Abdi.
Detectives and EACC sleuths who were following up on the corruption scandal published by the media house were shocked to learn that the online publication had been pulled down and when they followed up, they realized that the editor who authored the deletion had resigned.
The publication had captured fraudulent multimillion payments to ghost supplies with the Chief Officer heavily mentioned.
This happened at the time the Finance and Procurement department at City Hall was almost blasting into serious internal wars over suspected blatant financial malpractices by senior officers.
Abdi was then under siege from a section of staff and MCAs to stop gross violation of Public Finance Management Act, 2015.
The Chief Officer has for long battled allegations of ignoring recommendations from heads of departments and the procurement officers on payment of suppliers.
The Chief Officer has previously been accused of buying her position with a stagerring Sh10 million which gives her the confidence to do what she wants.
She once fell out with other senior Accounting officers among them Martha Wambugu and officers at the procurement department over irregular payments amounting to over 30 Million made between July and August 2023.
The payments were made to suspect companies believed to have supplied air.
Also hot on Asha’s heels is the Deputy Governor James Muchiri who is unhappy with the rising cases of unpaid dues to genuine suppliers who have been flocking his office for assistance.
Asha has also been criticized for favoring people from his community, especially those who got multimillion tender dills during the last regime.
A governor who held a senior position at the Nairobi City County Assembly is said to be in direct contact with her to influence payments.
Some troubled suppliers who hail from the Mount Kenya region had to seek audience with the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagwa to help them get paid after Asha turned them down.
Asha was also on the spot when the county was accused of paying Sh1.4 billion to legal firms despite an advice from the legal department and County Attorney to only pay Sh60 million owed to law firms whose work can be verified.
The revelations led to the sacking of County Arrtoney Lydia Kwamboka who had also told the Nairobi County Assembly legal committee that key files had been stolen from her office and suspected payments made to unknown firms.
Asha is on police radder and might take plea soon over ongoing probe at Cityhall.
