Thuita Mwangi denies Japan fraud charge

Former Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi. (Photo:File/Standard)

By Faith Karanja

Kenya: Three former senior officials of the Foreign Affairs ministry have formally denied criminal charges relating to the Sh1.5billion Tokyo embassy scandal.

Former Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi, former Deputy Director of Administration, Anthony Mwaniki Muchiri and former Charge D’Affairs at the Kenyan embassy in Tokyo, Allan Waweru Mburu were granted Sh2 million cash bail each pending trial on March 24.

The trio appeared before Nairobi acting Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulekyo on Friday and pleaded not guilty to charges of fraudulently approving the purchase of the proposed Kenyan embassy, failure to comply with procurement laws and abuse of office. Their bid to stop the prosecution was recently thwarted by High Court Judge David Majanja.

The first charge alleged that Thuita and Waweru, on diverse dates between January and October 2009 jointly conspired to commit an offence of corruption by approving the purchase of property known as 3-24-3 Yakumo Meguro-ku in Tokyo for the Chancery of the Kenya Embassy and ambassador’s residence at a price of ¥1.75 billion (Japanese Yen) while aware that a fair price could have been obtained had proper procurement procedures been adhered to.

On the second count, Thuita and Mburu are accused of abuse of office by sanctioning purchase of the property to improperly confer a benefit of ¥318,700,000 to Nobuo Kuriyama being the difference of the ¥1.75 billion that was actually paid and the ¥1,431,300,000 being the value that was assessed by the Kenya Government’s valuer.

Mburu is facing a separate charge of signing the contract at the Kenyan Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, on June 30, 2009, without lawful authority.

The three men faced another count of flouting procurement regulations by directly purchasing the property without following procedures.

Mulekyo directed the DPP to provide the defence team with a list of the potential witnesses and documentary evidence. The case will be mentioned December 20 to confirm compliance.