Nairobi, KENYA: Former Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo on Monday appeared before the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee for vetting of the position of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) chairperson despite a pending court case.
However, ghosts from a week ago came back to haunt him when he appeared for vetting and questions about his integrity came up.
The former power boss was on July 16th 2018 arrested and charged in court with conspiracy to commit an economic crime, abuse of office, aiding the commission of a felony, willful failure to comply with the law, conspiracy to defeat justice and fraudulent acquisition of public property and procurement/supply of faulty transformers alongside 10 other Kenya power officials.
Chumo, when questioned about the acquisition of faulty transformers, in his defense said this happened in 2011/2012 before he became the company’s chief executive.
“I became the CEO of KPLC in 2013 and I was not even a member of the procurement committee at that time because I was in human resources,” Chumo said.
Chumo also claimed there may be an extra hand trying to deny him the opportunity ahead of him but also wasn’t shy of arguing out his case.
“Chairman, I would like to plead with this committee that you should not be invited into this situation where somebody just throws the spanner in the works to deny me this opportunity, I really deserve it…. I honestly don’t think this challenge before I should deny me this opportunity.” Added Chumo.
Ben Chumo was nominated to the position of chairman of SRC by President Kenyatta and it remains to be seen whether Parliament will approve him.
He is currently out on bail waiting for his case to be mentioned on August 6 for pre-trial.
