CAPTION: Toxic KURA clerical officer Judy Mose alongside her benefactor Silas Kinoti
The Kenyan Urban Roads Authority (KURA) is an agency facing turbulent times.
From unscrupulousness in the procurement department to rampant corruption and nepotism.
A sombre mood is recently reported to have rocked the place where both senior employees and ordinary staff are said to be pleading to legal authorities to move in and save them from the toxicity of a young female administrator who also doubles up as the Director General’s mistress.
Judy Mose, a junior clerical officer is said to have exploited her more than cordial relationship with DG Engineer Silas Kinoti to quickly rise from just a mere paper and pen shuffler to a loathed egocentric figure at KURA.
According to insiders, she began wreaking havoc at the agency as early as 2018.
In an initial incident that raised multiple red flags, a bitter and frustrated Judy reportedly bulged into Kinoti’s office to protest missing out on a lucrative multi-million road tender in which was awarded to a different entity despite the DG himself having assured her of bagging it.
The tender which was floated under the number [KURA/RMLF/CE/056/2020-2021] was for the Periodic Maintenance of Lot 7 Roads Nanyuki/Sweet Waters Road /Ngoro/ Theru/ Nanyuki Road in Nanyuki Municipality and was worth a whooping Sh 14.2 million.
It was instead awarded to a contractor by the name Kaboi Building Contractors Ltd on October 12, 2020, to Judy’s displeasure.
That chaotic afternoon, she was overheard swearing to teach one Engineer Mwangi “a lesson” for taking her for a ride.
Engineer Mwangi is an Acting Director in the Urban Roads Planning and Design department who apparently is not happy with Judy’s shenanigans in the multibillion roads agency
Seen as the solitary voice of reason in the agency’s top hierarchy, he is known to be passionate and strict with ensuring that public procurement laws are always followed to the letter.
This has earned him quite a number of foes within KURA.
For many months, Judy Mose and Silas Kinoti’s quid pro quo deals have been an open secret.
The long-time mistress and has been enjoying numerous intimate favours from the KURA boss to the frustration of other workers within the organization.
Judy’s iron horns at KURA know no limits.
From some employee narrations anonymously sent to CNYAKUNDI.COM, she is said to have been involved in a heated altercation with an unnamed senior engineer at KURA earlier this year over a parking spot for her brand new Toyota Fortuner KCZ 117Y, which sources from the organization say she keeps boasting of how she acquired on a cash basis from a showroom along Mombasa Road.
When the engineer stood his ground and refused to bow down to Judy’s arrogant orders, she quickly headed for the Director General’s office and pushed for Mr Kinoti to prefer disciplinary action against the employee.
As a result, engineers at KURA have since then ganged up and are eagerly awaiting a disciplinary process after which they intend to launch a mega go-slow, which will likely expose the agency’s dark procurement and financial crimes.
Perhaps an explanation for her pride and a false sense of entitlement is the allegation that Ms Judy Mose is reportedly the younger sister to Reuben Mayienda, KURA’s Director for Corporate Services who also doubles as the agency’s Head of Finance.
Apart from the bells of nepotism ringing loud at KURA, it is another open secret within the agency that the academic papers Ms Judy used to secure employment are not authentic and that it was her brother, a certain Mr Reuben Mayienda, who helped her secure employment.
To prevent any chance of blowing cover, even Judy’s national ID was changed to reflect her fake name because her family name is Mayienda yet she has registered her Safaricom mobile number as Judy Mose.
The Director-General Mr Kinoti is also said to be aware of this fact.
Judy is alleged to have used the same fake academic papers to enrol for a degree programme at the University of Nairobi but she took off after a confidant informed her that the varsity had discovered her documents were illegitimate.
Thanks to leaking walls, it has now reportedly become common knowledge within KURA that Ms Judy Mose’s was illegally hired and unknown to her, some of the staff members have already confided in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) in search of action.
Nothing has been done yet.
In fact, as a result of Judy’s mischief, KURA also reportedly attracted the attention of the Financial Reporting Center (FRC) which conducted a forensic audit that exposed several financial irregularities within the agency.
The FRC dossier says that on February 20 2020, the Mandera bank account started receiving funds from the county government.
On November 19 2020, for instance, the account received four cheques totalling Sh7.6 million.
Three withdrawals of Sh980,500, KShs 945,000, and Sh 950,000 were made immediately after the funds were paid.
The report says that the account holder would later transfer KShs3million to her account.
Judy is said to enjoy an elaborate network at KURA through which she even lodges fake per diem claims using phoney names.
Despite massive staff complaints about these irregularities, back in 2018, no disciplinary action was taken against her.
In fact, to the contrary, she was irregularly promoted.
If you think that is crazy, wait till you hear this one.
Her impunity levels are said to be so high that she was overheard affirming how she earns additional salaries on fictitious names that she routinely forwards to Chinese roads contractors who win KURA tenders.
As though that is not enough, despite being a junior officer, she bulldozed her way into being illegally allocated a double cab Toyota designated for senior engineers within the agency, which was withdrawn later after angry staff leaked the information to the press.
Following the debacle, she promised her “haters” that she would soon drive a car from the “Big League” range.
Weeks later, she bought a Toyota Fortuner.
It is stories like this that make you question whether a functional legal and justice system exists in Kenya.
Even more sad, is the fact that relevant authorities have remained quiet on the matter despite brave employees coming out to expose the rot at KURA under numerous occasions.
“Must they wait until they completely suck out the life and money out of KURA?” asked one of our sources who opted to stay anonymous.
“Where is the DCI, EACC and KNQA?” he added.
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