The Mandera Governor Ali Roba the man who has aided the culture of impunity and inability to fight against Al Shabaab menace in his county has been in the office despite several cases of corruption against him. All other governors who have been implicated in corruption cases have been barred from their offices.
It is rumoured that the governor is well connected to the higher offices especially the DP Ruto’s office and has been undermining the government’s efforts in the fight against corruption.
In 2018, EACC through their annual corruption report termed Mandera as the County with the highest bribe amount at ksh 35,440. In their 2019 report, EACC puts Mandera among the top ten Counties where one is likely to pay a bribe.
The poorly constructed gate at the entrance to the Mandera County Referral Hospital according to reports seen by 254BreakingNews, costed a whooping ksh 35 million to erect. This was done when the County medical staff were threatening to go on strike due to unpaid salaries.
Last month, one of the Roba’s trusted aide fled with ksh 10 million which he was given by Roba as part of ksh 100 million intended to purchase a building in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area. This was part of the corruption money Ali Roba has been siphoning into his pockets from the County Government.
According to sources who spoke to 254Breaking News reporters, the governor opted not to report the case to the police since it will bring him down alongside his aide.
Last year Roba was implicated in unprocedural purchase of Ksh 16 million armoured vehicle from Milestone Cars Limited (Dubai). According to the investigation by the EACC officials, the procurement of the armoured vehicle was unprocedural, unlawful and breach of the procurement process.
Further, the Auditor General Report for the year ended on June 30, 2015 indicated that Sh 40,171 759.00 was used to hire six ambulances to be stationed at Mandera County. Simple search online revealed that Sh 40 million can comfortably purchase 5 fully equipped ambulances instead of using the money to hire them. The report further indicated that the firm which provided the ambulances belonged to a close relative of Roba and was not pre-qualified and the ambulance services were not obtained through a competitive bidding process either.
