Two bloggers are crying out over what they term as clear intimidation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after they exposed corruption at the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK).
According to Nanyuki-based blogger Fidel Wangai alias “Fidel Jesus”, some sleuths from the DCI Nanyuki branch summoned him to their offices alongside his colleague Martin Gathai and accused them of “posting bad things” against BATUK’s HR Manager Irene Mbugua.
This was after the two bloggers brought her under the spotlight over rampant corruption in the hiring process at the training support unit.
“Hi Cyprian, I hope that you are well. My name is Fidel Wangai a.k.a Fidel Jesus, a Nanyuki based blogger. On Thursday I was summoned to the Nanyuki DCI offices together with my fellow admin Martin Gathai,” he writes.
After they honoured the summons and showed up at the DCI Nanyuki offices, they were subjected to a gruesome day-long process after which all their gadgets were confiscated, fingerprints taken and then allowed to go home.
When speaking to this site’s Chief Editor Cyprian Nyakundi, Fidel Jesus revealed that during the entire process no kind of documentation or booking took place.
They only threatened them that their phones would be taken to Nairobi for forensic investigations.
Corruption at BATUK under Irene Mbugua
According to the two Nanyuki bloggers, BATUK’s Human Resource officers Irene Mbugua and Robinson Ateya have made it impossible for locals to get jobs at BATUK without paying bribes or being related to either of them.
In some of their publications which we have shared below, they wrote severally to the BATUK leadership, County Government, County Commissioner, and even the Labour Office in Nanyuki, seeking an audience but the training unit kept playing dodgy.
They accuse Irene Mbugua and Robinson Teya of taking advantage of the shortlisting process to sell BATUK’s job vacancies to the highest bidder; which is mostly their relatives.
“As others were applying the right way, Robinson and Irene were hiring through the back door and the genuine applications are sent to the dustbin.
The positions are filled through corruption, nepotism and favouritism, Batuk does not know that. They will be told that the positions were filled and they go back to the gym or golf club,” one post reads in part.
After the constant social media onslaught, BATUK finally broke their silence in March through a vague Facebook statement in which they denied the claims.
But going through some of the comments under the post, it is still clear as day that corruption is rife in their hiring process.
In October 2020 Fidel and his colleague Gathai wrote to BATUK seeking an audience to address some of their employment irregularities but they did not respond.
This pushed them to pursue other means like social media to communicate their message.
