The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has launched investigations into allegations that the Export Promotion Council (EPC) and Brand Kenya CEO Peter Biwott has abused office and hired staff from the Kalenjin Community to fill senior and lucrative positions.
EACC through Deputy Director, report and Data Centre Susan Kinyeki, has written to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives to establish the truth and take appropriate action.
In the letter, EACC says it has received allegations that Biwott made an approval to enable non -technical staff to travel out of the Country in disregard of the nomination that had been done by the PS office.
“He allegedly bullies, harasses and demoralizes staff through irregular demotions and or intimidation and fabrication of lies and witch -hunting against staff,” the EACC wrote.
The EACC adds that Peter Biwott attempted to take shs 25 million house loan from the EPC Housing Fund, with no guarantee on who will take up the loan.
“The subject allegedly glossed over unprofessional conduct by staff during the EPC Trade Fairs in Uganda, ISF Birmingham and Dar-es-Salaam,” the EACC said.
The Export Promotion Council was merged with the Brand Kenya Board to create the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA).
KEPROBA was born through a special gazette notice, gazette supplement number 117, legislative supplement number 35, legal notice number 110, state corporations act cap 446.
The gazette notice was published on 9th August 2019.
Its Board members are PS Trade, Attorney -General or his representative and PS National Treasury.
Its headed by Jas Bedi as the non-executive Chairperson, while Jacqueline Muga, Kathleen Kihanya and Mark Bichachi are serving as private sector representatives on the Board for three years.
KEPROBA’s functions. include advocating, coordinating, harmonizing and implementing export promotion, national branding initiatives and policies that promote Kenyan goods and services in export markets.
On 12th August 2019, some KEPROBA staff wrote to Trade PS Chris Kiptoo to intervene and save the situation.
“Kindly interrogate keenly the KEPROBA staff placement exercise which was done in Mombasa because it does not reflect the spirit of a merger. The Brand Kenya Staff have seriously been disadvantaged as compared to Export Promotion Staff,” the staff said in the letter that was received by the PS office on 14th August.
They copied the letter to the Presidents Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua, KEPROBA Board chairman Jaswinder Bedi, Jane Mugambi the State corporations Advisory Committee and Stephen Kerogo the Head of Public Service Commission.
The Staff went on to say that during the merger, their files were doctored by the then EPC CEO Peter Biwott so that only his cronies and girlfriends are the ones who got the Directorate Positions.
“Mr Biwott intimidated, bullied and interfered with the work of the merger implementation committee and they succumbed to these pressures not realizing such decisions will hurt KEPROBA,” the employees said.
The Staff claim there are long serving staff who were unfairly downgraded and yet they have un-paralleled work experience and on the job courses that can be useful in senior positions in KEPROBA.
The staff want a neutral acting CEO to be appointed from the ministry or public service commission.
When contacted for comment, KEPROBA CEO, Peter Biwott was reluctant to respond.
Hot News reached out to him for comment on September 10th.
He promised to respond on September 17th .
On September 17th, he said he can’t give his comment until Monday 23rd after he has studied and understood the EACC and staff complaint letter.
“If you go ahead and publish, then you will be siding with the select malicious staff- instead of objectively getting all the feedback and clarity. That can land your organization in trouble since you will not realize and your publications will be false and defaming unfairly, attacking my reputation and maliciously yielding into tribal profiling.” Biwott told Hot News.