The head of the anti-counterfeit authority has been caught up in a storm after it emerged that the private number plates for his official car were forged on Kirinyaga Road, Nairobi.
The senior State official was also found to have altered the tracking gadget on one other vehicle assigned to him. However, he defended the move, saying he took the decision for “private and security” reasons.
Ironically, the revelations that a vehicle assigned to the Anti-Counterfeiting Agency (ACA) had fake number plates would never have been brought to light had the car not been involved in an accident on December 21, 2014.
A report on the cause of the accident revealed the wanton misuse of a government resource and raised the probability that there could be other government vehicles on the roads fitted with fake number plates, and being used for private errands with impunity.
A committee investigating the circumstances of the crash heard how acting ACA director John Akoten gave his driver money to procure the fake set of civilian plates to replace the blue ones assigned to his official car, a Volkswagen Passat, registration number KBQ 633D. The car was valued at Sh3.6 million.
“Due to police check units in Isiolo, Nakuru and Kitale, the acting executive director instructed his driver to make private number plates after the initial set was withdrawn. The acting ED gave the driver Sh2,500 and he went to make it on Kirinyaga Road in Nairobi,” the committee’s report reveals.
“The transport officer also had his controls over the Passat withdrawn after Mr Akoten instructed him several times to remove the vehicle from tracking, but he declined.”
The transport officer, whose job was to manage the authority’s 14 vehicles, suddenly found himself unable to track Mr Akoten’s two official vehicles.
He was also unable to explain how one of the cars suddenly had civilian number plates.
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