Ken Tarus: Former Kenya Power boss set free from tender fraud charges

Ken Tarus is the former Kenya Power boss. ILLUSTRATION | JOSEPH BARASA | NMG

Don’t take your freedom for granted. Also, don’t take it for granted that there are well-meaning people around you… because there are others who don’t mean well. These were the words of former Kenya Power managing director Ken Tarus after he was acquitted of charges of graft last week.

Dr Tarus was let off the hook in connection to the fraudulent procurement of transport services, which allegedly led to the loss of Sh159 million at the power utility company.

He and eight other senior managers were accused of failing to comply with the procedures and guidelines relating to the procurement of labour and transport services.

“I am bruised but not broken. The case did not take away my skills and experience of nearly 30 years in private and public service. I have a clear mind and the foresight to drive change that we desire to make our society better,” he says about his six years in the corridors of justice.

But he admits to suffering anguish over the charges, losing his job, and being deserted by some friends.

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He recalls how when he appeared before the anti-corruption court for the first time that cold July, shaken, he thought it was a little inconvenience that would end soon and he would head back to his C-Suite office on the 7th floor of Stima Plaza, Nairobi.

But lo and behold, days turned into weeks and months into six years.

He says the case became an albatross around his neck. He had to appear in court at every court sitting (physical and virtual, after restrictions were placed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic) for the last six years, including the last one on Wednesday when he was set free.

Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Juma discharged Dr Tarus following an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Noordin Haji, for lack of sufficient evidence to sustain the case.

His former co-accused did not object to the application.

“This leaves the court with no basis nor grounds to decline the request. This case must then follow that tide. He is accordingly discharged,” Ms Juma ruled. His acquittal was the second one in about three months.

The DPP had earlier dropped another case against him together with former senior managers at Kenya Power over the alleged procurement of transformers, which turned out to be faulty.

So what next for the 52-year-old after a tumultuous six years in court corridors? Dr Tarus says he is treating the case as a bump in the journey to better things.

With a wry smile, he says he has also learnt a lot from the case. Though he is keeping the cards to his chest, he says he is open to other career options.

“This includes going back to the corporate world,” he said.

The former St Patrick’s Iten old boy says he lives by the motto, ‘Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do’ as espoused by Brother Mercellus.

A devout Catholic, Dr Tarus says he is a doer of the faith he professes and prays unceasingly, goes to church and fasts intermittently and strives “to do good” to his neighbours.

“I do it (fasting) for sacrifice and spiritual nourishment… I believe in doing unto my neighbour what I would like done to me.”

Throughout the period that the case ran in court, the former chief executive and MD of the NSE-listed firm maintained that he was innocent and dismissed the charges as “trumped up and politically motivated”.

A career banker, Dr Tarus worked in the private sector before switching to the public sector.

He started his career in 1998 at KCB as a management trainee, then moved to Standard Chartered (2002-2006), the French-owned Bank of Africa (2006-2009), and the Thika Road-based KCA University between 2009 and 2011 as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Finance & Administration.

He then took the plunge into public service with a short stint at the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) as general manager of finance between 2012 and 2014 before taking up a similar role at Kenya Power.

He recalls brokering a World Bank-syndicated facility that helped to clean up the balance sheet that had been weighed down by unsustainable short-term loans.

It was during his stint at the utility that the Sh63 billion Last Mile Connectivity Project was implemented, connecting more homes to the national grid than at any time since independence.

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“We got more people on the grid (five million connections) in three years than at any time since independence,” he said.

The Last Mile Connectivity Project anchored President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election campaign in 2017. There are over 8.6 million connections currently.

Dr Tarus loves to read and attend to his dairy farm in Uasin Gishu in his spare time. He is currently reading The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches which among others has speeches from Moses (in the Bible) to South Africa’s peace icon Nelson Mandela to Abraham Lincoln to Margaret Thatcher to Queen Elizabeth.

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