Kiambu County Governor Ferdinand Waititu alias Baba yao, his wife Susan Wangari and 11 others will spend another night in the cells pending bail ruling.
This is after the 13 accused persons pleaded not guilty to graft charges before Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi who will deliver the bail ruling tomorrow.
Waititu is charged with conflict of interest for directly acquiring an indirect private to wit of Sh 25 million in respect to payments made to Testimony Enterprises Limited for contract awarded to the said company by Kiambu County Government.
The governor is also charged alongside his company, Saika Two Estate Developers Limited with dealing with suspect property. The two are alleged to have received Sh 18 million from Testimony Enterprises Limited while having reason to believe that the said money was acquired from Kiambu County Government through corrupt conduct.
Waititu is further charged alongside his wife with dealing in suspect property. The court heard that the Governor and his wife being proprietors of Bienvenue Delta Hotel, jointly received Sh 7 million from Testimony Enterprises while having reason to believe that the said amount was acquired from the county government through corrupt conduct.
The other accused persons who are members of the Kiambu County Tender committee are Luka Mwangi, Charles Chege, Beth Wangeci, Zacharia Njenga, Joyce Ngina, Simon Kabocho, Anselm Gachukia, Samuel Mugai. Also charged are Testimony Enterprises Limited, Saika Two Estate Developers Limited and Bienvenue Delta Hotel.
Luka Mwangi who is the Chief officer Roads, Transport, Public Works and utilities is charged with abuse of office by allegedly conferring a benefit to Testimony Enterprises to wit Sh 588,198,328.20 by awarding contract in tender for upgrading of various roads within Kiambu County to Bituminous Standard, a company that was not qualified.
Njenga, Ngina, Kabocho, Gachukia and Muigai are charged with wilful failure to comply with procurement laws by introducing a new criteria in the evaluation of the tender for the upgrading of various gravel roads to Bituminous.
Mbuthia, Wangeci and Testimony Enterprises are charged that being the Directors of the said company, engaged in a fraudulent procurement practice to wit submission of a bid document in respect to the above tender to Kiambu County Government with false degree certificate for technical staff attached.
The three are further charged with submitting a bid document in respect to the said tender with false recommendation letter from China Wu Yi company.
They are further charged with fraudulent acquisition of public property to wit Sh 147,274,055.40 for upgrading of the gravel roads and three counts of money laundering.
The accused persons appeared before Anti-corruption Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi.
The defense team led by Tom Ojienda, John Swaka Nelson Havi, Mbiu Kamau among others applied for their clients to be granted bail stating that they are not at flight risk.
The court heard that the render committee members earn a salary of Sh 125,000 and therefore do not have the financial muscle to travel outside the country.
Ojienda submitted that the construction of the said roads is still ongoing adding that there are no charges relating to non delivery of a tender that has been awarded.
The court heard that the tender was awarded diligently for the good of the people of Kiambu.
The court heard that the tender committee members earn a salary of Sh 125,000 and therefore do not have the financial muscle to travel outside the country.
The prosecution lead by Alexander Muteti asked the court to order Waititu to surrender all his travel documents and produce one surety.
He also requested the court to consider the amount of money involved and give a commensurate amount for bail.
He further wants Waititu restrained from returning to the office pending the determination of the matter.
Muteti submitted that if the people of Samburu County, are still functioning without a governor then the people of Kiambu can do the same.
The prosecution added that the Governor has powers to determine the fate of an employee and urged the court to find that there is real danger against the witnesses majority of whom are County employees.
“Majority of the witnesses are to be found within the County govt of Kiambu offices. It would not be prudent to let junior officers in the county of Kiambu be superintended by the Governor,” muteti added.
