Its has now been exposed that two activists have filed a case in court seeking to stop Philip Mainga from holding office as the Director of the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) over claims of facilitating the loss of Sh700 billion in the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
Francis Owino and Ezekiel Okoth say they are fearful Mainga will lead to the loss of more taxpayers’ money if he is allowed to continue occupying the said office based on what happened with the SGR establishment.
“There was an illegal and unlawful extension and irregular dealings that led to the loss of Sh 700 billion belonging to the taxpayers,” the two said in court papers.
His term was recently extended to 2026.
The duo claim Mainga is illegally occupying the office amidst gross transgressions of the Law.
“It has always been in the public knowledge that the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway was through financing by the Chinese Government,” the duo say.
“But it has now come to the limelight that the loan purportedly advanced to Kenya by a Chinese Bank for the construction of the railway did not qualify as a public debt,” they add.
The duo claim that both the Kenyan government and the Exim Bank of China purport to have paid a total of Sh 1.8 trillion to the contractor and supplier of the standard gauge railway against a contract sum of Sh 407 billion.
This means there was an overpayment of Sh777 billion that cannot be accounted for.
According to the court documents, the unlawful dealings with the construction of the railway were done under the watch of Mainga.The duo have further accused him of recently initiating a flawed deal with Africa Star Railways (Afristar), a Chinese operator for the SGR Line, which they say ran largely unchecked where Kenya Railways lost up to Sh 1.4 million daily.
Justice Hedwig Ong’undi who heard the application directed the petition to be served to Mainga and the EAC that’s been listed as an interested party within 3 days.Responses will be filed and served within 7 days.
The matter will be mentioned on August 30 for further directions.
