A businessman has been charged with graft after allegedly receiving millions on behalf on Nairobi County Government.
George Gichuri Karume is accused conspiring with two County officials, Esther Nyambura Thogori, a clerical officer and Bonny Stephen Otieno Oduor, Building Inspector of fraud by dishonestly receiving and retaining Sh 8,891,943 building plan approval monies meant for Nairobi County Government.
He is alleged to have committed the offence between 11th May and 16th December 2015 at City Hall.
The three are accused of conspiring to defraud Chinese Contractor Li Wen Xue the above monies purporting it to be building approval fee by NCG.
It is alleged that on 11th May and 3rd June in Nairobi, Karume obtained the 8 million from Xue by falsely pretending that he was in a position to obtain building approval from the county Government on his behalf.
Karume is further accused of knowingly and fraudulently uttering a false document namely Nairobi City County Government Construction Invoice purporting it to be genuine.
Additionally, the accused is charged with making and uttering a false Nairobi City Construction Local Authority Information financial and operation management receipt purporting it to be genuine.
The prosecution objected to the release of the accused person on bail on grounds that he is at flight risk and had failure to cooperate with the authorities.
Principal Magistrate Felix Kombo heard that the other accused persons appeared in court a few months ago and denied the charges.
However, they investigators accused Karume of failing to cooperate as efforts to trace him through his phone were futile since he never responded to the calls and messages despite them being delivered.
The prosecution also applied for the matter to be consolidated the other one already before court which is coming up on 3rd December for hearing.
The magistrate ruled that the accused be detained until 3rd December when the two matters will be consolidated.
He also directed Karume to renew his bail application before the trial court.
