Kenya Railways has lost over Sh150 million in scrap metal

KENYA Railways has lost over Sh150 million worth of scrap metal in the last three years and over 1,000 wagons in an orgy of looting condoned by top corporation officials.

The firm, which handed over rail operations to Rift Valley Railways in 2006, is unable to account for 1,320 wagons. It has had to guess that they were scrapped and sold un-procedurally.

The brazen looting of company property has involved private companies, security personnel, the Kenya Police, senior corporation officers and even casual labourers.

Also stolen are railway lines, sidings and water tanks, under the pretext of being scrap metal.

An audit report by Remmy Koech, the risk and audit manager, shows that 13 firms and one individual owe the Corporation Sh158 million from collected scrap metal that was not properly invoiced.

The corporation conceded a total of 6,016 rolling stock pieces to RVR, excluding what the audit report called Loco engines, Coaches, BKs, BVs and BVBs.

However, the RVR Rail Tracker, as of February 16, 2012, indicated that 3,713 wagons were no longer in existence at RVR. They were missing.

“From the 3,713 wagons which were no longer with RVR as at February 16, 2012, 2,393 wagons were returned. We therefore concluded that as at February 16, 2013, 1,320 wagons were scrapped without being returned properly,” the report says.

The 13 companies mentioned in the audit are Morris & Company (2004) Ltd, Devki Steel Mills Ltd, Manyota Ltd, Kikaki Ltd, Norris Agencies, Chuma Mania Enterprises, Wata Expo Ltd, Emco Billete & Steel Ltd, Kenya United Steel 2006, Shivam Metals Ltd, Leecan Investments, Tropical Reclam and KUSCO.

An individual named James Mwangi is said to have collected loose scrap metal worth Sh15 million from Railway headquarters while claiming he was collecting waste paper. He had driven out 47 truckloads of the “paper” by the time he was stopped in 2011.

According to the audit, Tropical Reclam and Shivam Metals owe the corporation the most, at Sh52 million and Sh45 million respectively. Most, if not all, companies involved flouted the tendering processes with the connivance of corporation officials.