Three charged with plot to swindle KPA Sh8 million

A clearing agent and two employees of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) have been charged with conspiring to defraud the authority Sh7.9 million being part of container handing charges for 14 containers.
On Tuesday the three were arraigned at the Mombasa Chief Magistrates court where the charges were read to them.
Abdullahi Bule Ahmed alias Ismail Hassan,Yusuf Bakari Boi and Moses Shukrani Kahindi denied the charges before Chief Magistrate Evans Makori and were released on a Sh 1m bond with an alternative of or Sh 500,000 cash bail.
Their lawyer Boaz Adalla made an application to the court to grant them bail pending hearing and determination of the suit.
"My clients are Kenyans and as stipulated by law, they have a right to be granted bail. They are considered innocent until proven guilty," he said.
The prosecution had no objection on the application but asked the court to consider the amount of money involved in the suit.
Adalla also asked the prosecution to supply his clients with all witness statements that will be used in the case.
The three denied that on diverse dates between February 17 and 21 at the port of Mombasa, conspired to defraud the authority Sh 7.9 million.
Boi and Kahindi who are KPA employees were slapped with five counts of unlawfully accessing the Container Automated Terminal System using an account number belonging to Lena Serem.
The court was informed that the two had tampered with the system with an intent to commit an offence.
They were accused of intending to unlawfully clear 14 containers, the property of M/S Cobtex International Limited without following due procedure.
They were also charged that on February 23, they unlawfully denied an employee at the port of Mombasa, Geoffrey Langat, access the company system to check containers by unlawfully resetting his password without his knowledge or approval.
The duo having been information technology support officers at the KPA, they were also found with an offence of disclosing Langat's password to facilitate wrongful access to the containers.
The case will be heard on May 8.