Kenya Power managers finally freed on bail

Kenya Power managers at the dock in Milimani law court where they are charged with conspiracy to commit an economic crime at Kenya Power Company. [Beverlyne Musili/Standard]

Senior managers of Kenya Power charged with conspiracy to defraud over Sh750 million finally secured their freedom after four days in custody.

The 19 officials however had to spend another night at Gigiri police station since banks were already closed at the time anti-corruption court chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti granted them bail, which made it impossible to deposit the money.

Mr Ogoti ruled that the prosecution had not presented enough evidence to warrant their continued detention and released each on a cash bail of Sh1 million. In the alternative, he directed the accused to deposit a personal bond of Sh3 million or a Sh2 million bond with a surety of same amount.

“Bail can only be denied if there is strong evidence that the accused will interfere with witnesses or investigations. But considering the facts in this case, I find that the prosecution has not discharged its mandate to prove a compelling reason to deny bail,” ruled Ogoti.

He however directed the accused to deposit their passports in court and to report to the Director of Criminal Investigations offices after every two weeks.

The magistrate also ordered the accused persons not to approach any of the Kenya Power offices or use their passwords to access information from the computers or servers.

In the event that any of them fails to raise the cash bail by end of tomorrow (today), the magistrate ordered that they be transferred to Industrial Area Prison.

Those released were the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ken Tarus, his predecessor Ben Chumo, Commercial Services Manager K.P. Mungai, Finance Manager Joshua Mutua, ICT Manager Abubakar Swaleh, Regional Coordination Manager Samuel Ndirangu and Supply Chain Manager Stanley Mutwiri.

Others were the Ag General Manager Finance Harun Karisa, General Manager Network Management Eng Daniel Tare, Manager Network Management Noah Omondi, and Ag General Manager Supply Chain Daniel Ochieng.

The Manager Labour and Transport Project Eng John Mwaura, Chief Accountant James Muriuki, and Tender Opening Committee Members Bernard Githui, and Evelyne Amondi and businessman James Njenga Muingai were also released.