Kenya is one of the top four African nations hardest hit by the Aids scourge. The President Mwai Kibaki-led government is seeking funds to acquire anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and also run prevention programmes.
Yet, according to sources, dozens of Community-Based Organisations(CBOs) funded to run activities at the grassroots have since vanished while others are said to have declared flimsy receipts and fake back-up documents to account for non-existent activities.
In Eastern Province, local administrators and anti-Aids personnel frustrated efforts by these CBOs to acquire the funds because the latter declined to give out kickbacks.
The statutory National Aids Control Council (NACC) disbursed almost KSh 900 million to the agencies and individual ministries last year. This was part of a KSh1.6 billion World Bank grant towards Kenya’s effort against HIV/Aids.
But because of the litany of corruption that dogged past initiatives within the government, the donors demanded the funds be disbursed through individual community agencies to run activities at the grassroots.
By the time bidding closed in April last year, 1,800 organisations had filed in their proposals. In haste to get things off the ground, NACC released the funds, ranging from several thousands of shillings to millions, all depending on the demands and strengths of individual organisations.
Yet, it appears that shrewd dealers and unscrupulous NACC officials seized the opportunity to pocket a huge chunk of the money. Today, Biosafety News reveals how the millions oiled the pockets of cons. “It is just the tip of the iceberg,” says an official in the Ministry of Health in Nairobi.
Our investigations also reveal that many of the beneficiary agencies were hastily registered to benefit from the kitty. A number of them collapsed immediately upon receiving the funds.
On the advice of NACC personnel, a Machakos sect hurriedly registered a CBO to seek the anti-Aids funds. Love Mission Centre , an outfit under the umbrella of Love Mission Church, was registered on July 17, 2002 and applied for funds in April 2003. It was given KSh 931,181 in three phases: Sh 468,333, Sh 366,750 and Sh 96,100, in that order.
But by last month, the CBO’s office was temporarily closed because of non payment of KSh 5,100 monthly rent. The mission leader Peter Wambua conceded that at one time, the CBO had problems in paying Sh16,000 in rent arrears.
“In 2,000 orphans started coming to us. We developed a proposal to NACC but they said we could not get it as a church. They said we register CBO with the Social Services department,” he says.
But the problem runs deeper. Of the 1,300 agencies that benefitted, half are not even listed in the telephone directories, a further indication of the difficult in tracking them.
It is because of this that the new NACC Director Dr.Patrick Orege has ordered far-reaching audit of all CBOs and NGOs that received funding.
In the mantime, he has suspended more than a dozen suspect organisations and referred their cases to the legal department.
“We are very serious. If we get an organisation not implementing its mandate, we will take action,’ said Dr. Orege, who took over following the sacking of Dr. Margaret Gachara in yet another alleged fraud-related incident.
Among agencies whose funding has been suspended are Future Focus Network, Senator One Services, Neema Children Centre, Oloosirkon Youth Group Centre, all in Nairobi, Ogiek Rural Initiative Project in South Rift, Kenya Micro Enterprise Promotion Programme in North Rift, Matumaini Mosaria Self Help Group in Kisii, Splendid Women Group in Siaya, Empowering Community Perception Organisation (EPCO) in Uasin Gishu, and Young Women Development Group in Garissa.
Personnel at NACC headquarters, Chancery Building, expect more names to emerge as authorities pursue further cases. “Wait until all documentation is scrutinised and matched against work done on the ground. More names will feature.”
Future Focus Network whose officials were Ben Wanjala, John Osolo and Ben Mua closed shop before accounting for the KSh 400,000 allocation. When NACC officials visited what was once their office, they found that the orphans who the organisation was meant to be cater for by, had been left under the care of a pastor without any money to feed them.
“The documents submitted to account for funds were suspicious. Investigations have determined that funds were misappropriated. The officials abandoned the orphans,” says a report by NACC made available to this writer upon inquiries.
NACC had approved KSh1.3 million for Future Focus Network, of which KSh 400,000 was disbursed on April 25, 2003. The remaining tranche has been withheld after the anomaly was detected, according to sources. The project was meant to run for a year, from April 2003 to April 2004. The three officials disagreed and parted company.
Senator One services officials - Joseph Kiposke Bor (chairman), Simeon Kipkumi Rono (treasurer) and Chemutai C. Kalya (secretary) - was to receive Sh1.6 million from the council, which was approved and the first tranche of KSh 408,414 released on June 26, 2002.
But when NACC officials made inquiries, they discovered that “support receipts and back-up documents for the Statement of Expenditure were suspect and despite concerted efforts and meetings to clear the issue, the officials were unable to clarify,” according to a report by NACC, which suspended further disbursement.
Documents show that they had offices at Mitchell Cotts House, Suite 115, Nairobi. Their telephone is given as 344169, which is reportedly out of order.
Dr Patrick Orege says this case has been forwarded to the authority’s legal department “for further action”.
In the case of Kenya Micro Enterprise Promotion Programme, although its officials gave supporting receipts and documents, there was nothing on the ground to account for the claims. “This fact was established by the local administration, District Development Officer and the Provincial Aids Control Council (office),” says a report by NACC.
KMEPP sought Sh1.2 million to cover for a project earmarked to run between June 2002 and May 2003. Ironically, the officials, Mathew Koech (chairman), Grace Kiptui (treasurer) and Phylis Kandie (secretary) were based in Nairobi rather than in Kabarnet, where their office and operations are located.
On July 2, 2002, the organisation received its first tranche: KSh 400,000. Now NACC has suspended further disbursements to the organization.
Fraud within the Aids sector was complemented by the ineptitude at the NACC. People in the task forces and technical committees that scrutinised proposals appeared to have pursued their own interests in awarding allocations to organisations whose backgrounds were suspect and dubious.
First, NACC gave out money without any knowledge of how to trace beneficiaries. And second, the authority is yet to develop a mechanism to follow up on its initiatives.
Indeed, contrary to restrictions on private organisations, some of the beneficiaries of the KSh 900 million were in fact private schools.
Away from Nairobi, Matumaini Mosaria Self Help Group, in Kisii Central, appears to have been mere hot air. NACC failed to trace its officials, even after they received KSh 200,000 of the KSh 350,000 they applied for. The case of Philip Onyonka (chairman), Mark Oyure (treasurer) and Thomas Machongo has been referred to NACC’s legal department for possible prosecution.
The case of Matumaini Mosaria gives an insight into how the disbursement was flawed from the outset. A NACC report indicates that Kisii Aids authorities failed to “trace the office of the organisation” an indication that NACC’s technical committee that scrutinised the proposals looked little into the integrity and credibility of the organisations they were going to fund.
Kilometres away, in the same Nyanza Province, Splendid Women Group of Siaya received KSh 200,000 on June 19, 2002 but has initiated no activities, almost 12 months since they got the funds. “No activities were initiated using the NACC funding, neither could the organisation account for the disbursed funds.”
The thread that runs through these cases is that officials abandoned projects midstream and could not be traced to account for the funds.
The fraud has forced Dr Orege to restructure the organisation’s funding mechanism in a bid to decentralise the management of anti-Aids projects at the constituency level. “The end point of Aids is death. NACC cannot afford to take issues lightly, especially in matters of finances.” he says adding his organisation will continue to monitor all the beneficiary CBOs and NGOs.
Yet, the scenario is hardly surprising, Even within NACC ranks, allegations of corruption forced the suspension and eventual sacking of the former director Margaret Gachara. As shrewd individuals ripped apart NACC’s vaults, a number of established CBOs at HIV/Aids hotspots could hardly implement their activities due to lack of funds. Salama Development Women Group sought KSh 399,000 but received nothing because the area provincial administration could not get a kickback. “We were told our proposal had gone through but we never saw any money,’ says assistant secretary, David Ndavi. The group cares for 102 Aids orphans.

NEXT ISSUE:

1. How and why NACC has become the milch cow: The intrigues and behind-the-scenes operations of suspect organisations ripping off this anti-Aids body. What Dr. Patrick Orege is doing to clean it.

2. Also, the politics in Kenya’s Aids sector