A day after appearing before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Kakamega County Governor Fernandez Barasa has defended himself over corruption allegations during his tenure at the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO).
Speaking Wednesday outside his office while unveiling his county executive and chief officers, Barasa maintained that his record at the firm is clean and that he never left any scandal at the firm.
He instead shifted blame to Kenya Power Company (KPC), saying problems that bedeviled the project arose from penalties for delayed implementation of the project which was being paid by Kenya Power Company and Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP).
“What is being investigated is the root cause of the penalties for delayed implementation of the project, which was being paid by Kenya Power Company and Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP),” he said.
He maintained that KETRACO did not take part in the power purchase agreement between KPC and LTWP, which provided penalties for any delay in completion of the transmission line.
Recently, EACC grilled Barasa, a former CEO at KETRACO who is said to have been questioned on how over Sh600 million in excess was allegedly paid to LTWP and other millions of shillings were paid to the wrong accounts.
The Governor said he only brought in a new contractor after the original one failed to complete the project on time.
“The original contractor was struggling and for 3 years he had only done 55 percent of the project, but I brought in a new contractor through competitive bidding and who delivered the project in only seven months,” he added.
“As the then Chief Executive Officer, I had a responsibility of making sure that the project was completed on time and that is why I could not tolerate a contractor who was struggling to deliver the line,” he said.
He said that he was ready to go give more information to EACC) and assured the residents of Kakamega that there was no cause for alarm.
He appealed to the media not to be sensational in reportage of the matter.