Scandal! Scandal ! Scandal everywhere. Corruption and scandals are now growing to be the order of the day in Kenya. Even when you things are becoming thicker, a scam erupts.
A Spanish firm contracted by Kenya Railways to supply spare parts, maintenance and training services for new locomotives is embroiled in a price-fixing scandal in Brazil.
Construccion y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA (CAF), which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment, is at the centre of a Brazilian investigation in which some of Europe’s leading engineering firms are alleged to have defrauded the country’s taxpayers of billions of shillings by forming cartels in the Brazilian public transport sector.
CAF, together with two other firms Alstom (French) and Siemens (German), are accused of paying bribes to Brazilian public officials involved in setting up the cartels in which companies colluded to win contracts for building and maintenance of trains and metro lines.
Kenya Railways Corporation, however, said it will undertake “further due diligence” on the Spanish railway equipment manufacturer expected to be part of wider Sh10 billion plans to decongest the city.
Kenya Railways had said in a detailed notice published in the dailies two weeks ago that CAF would be tasked with maintaining, training of its staff locally and to provide spare parts for railway coaches that the State wants to buy from another Spanish State-owned rail transportation company, Serveia Ferroviaria de Mallorca (SFM).
The refurbished trains or DMUs (diesel multiple units) are part of a State plan to upgrade Nairobi’s mass transport system and decongest Nairobi’s traffic jams.
The second-hand trains are expected to cost taxpayers Sh1.5 billion. Kenya Railways had earlier said each train has a lifespan of 23 to 25 years. The decongestion project was approved by the Cabinet last year.