The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has initiated fresh investigations into alleged tender and procurement irregularities at Nairobi City County, placing Head of Procurement Richard Mogoko back at the centre of an expanding corruption probe at City Hall.
Investigators are focusing on Mogoko’s role in authorising, facilitating, or failing to stop questionable procurement processes that allegedly enabled the payment of hundreds of millions of shillings to companies whose work could not be verified, or which are said to be linked to senior county officials and proxies. Sources familiar with the probe say the new investigations build on earlier inquiries by oversight agencies and are informed by recently reviewed payment vouchers, procurement files, and internal approvals.
According to documents seen by this publication, the county processed large lump-sum payments in June and July 2023, a period when Nairobi City County had just received over Sh70 billion from the National Treasury at the tail end of the 2022/2023 financial year. Investigators are probing claims that procurement controls were deliberately weakened or bypassed to rush payments before the start of the 2023/2024 financial year, exposing the county to losses estimated by insiders at nearly Sh500 million.
At the heart of the probe is a list of 27 companies alleged to have benefited from suspect and irregular payments, with a first batch reportedly receiving about Sh290.3 million on July 13, 2023, followed by a second tranche of Sh60.9 million. The DCI is examining whether procurement approvals, supplier vetting, and delivery confirmations were manipulated within the procurement department, a unit under Mogoko’s leadership.
Among the companies flagged are Lakev Enterprises Limited, which received payments totaling more than Sh24 million in a single day, and Istanbul Investment Company, which was paid over Sh15.2 million. Investigators are also scrutinising Northern Rock Investment, which allegedly received Sh19.6 million for works whose delivery could not be independently authenticated, and Brighton Pharmaceutical, which is said to have been paid Sh18.5 million despite the county largely procuring medicines through KEMSA.
Sources say the DCI is particularly interested in how procurement files were cleared, the basis for supplier selection, and whether conflict-of-interest declarations were ignored or falsified. Mogoko’s office is accused of being the gatekeeper that allowed questionable suppliers to pass through the system and receive payments from the county treasury.
Mogoko has previously been mentioned in investigations alongside senior county officials, including officers from finance, trade, and the county assembly. In November 2023, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) summoned 11 county officers over alleged theft involving Sh60 million, while also following up on additional payments of Sh100 million suspected to have been channelled to proxy companies. The DCI’s renewed interest signals a possible escalation from administrative and ethics reviews to criminal culpability.
The investigations come as City Hall faces fresh controversy over an alleged fake Local Purchase Order (LPO) issued for the supply of 60 Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones at Sh375,000 per unit. A petition before the Nairobi City County Assembly alleges the LPO was unauthorised and forged, raising further questions about procurement controls and oversight failures within Mogoko’s department.
With procurement widely viewed as the epicentre of corruption in county governments, investigators say Mogoko’s position makes him a critical link in unraveling how public funds were allegedly siphoned through inflated tenders, ghost suppliers, and rushed end-year payments.
At the time of publication, neither Richard Mogoko nor Nairobi City County had issued a public response to the renewed DCI investigations. The probe is ongoing.
