Former Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) Managing director Charles Ongwae has pleaded not guilty to 5 counts of offences in connection to the 64 million shillings revenue scam.
Ongwae had failed to appear in court on 31st December when his co-accused pleaded to the charges and summons were issued for him to appear on 2nd January 2019 to plead.
He appeared before Principal Magistrate Kenneth Cheruiyot where he denied two charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, breach of trust and abuse of office charges.
Ongwae is charged with conspiring to defraud the Government of Kenya of Revenue amounting to Sh 4,315,654 by unlawfully imposing a penalty of 0.5 percent instead of 15 percent of the total custom value on import goods arriving into the country without a certificate of conformity.
The former boss is alleged to have committed the offence between 25th and 26th January 2018, jointly with others not before court.
In this count, he is being charged alongside Eric Chesire (quality assurance director) and four directors of three companies who are Samuel Mburu Kamau, George Hillary Kamau, Ibrahim Twahir Muhamed and Harrison Ngigi Muchiri of Gendipe Enterprises, Rupai Trading Limited and landmark Freight Services.
Together with Chesire, Ongwae also faced a charge of breach of trust. The two are said to have conspired to defraud the Government of revenue amounting to Sh 8,616,372 million by unlawful imposing a penalty of 0.5 percent instead of 15 percent of the total custom value on import goods arriving in the country without a certificate of conformity.
He also faces charges of abusing his office by unlawfully authorizing the waiver of penalty for import goods arriving into the country without certificate of conformity from the country of origin from 15% of the total custom value to 0.5%.
Directions
The magistrate also directed the accused to present himself at the DCI headquarters for processing and record his statement.
He was released on a cash bail of Sh 300,000.
