By JUDY OGUTU
Former Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Managing Director David Waweru and his co-accused Hezekiel Oira have been put on their defence in corruption charges.
The two were yesterday found to have a case to answer and will now appear before Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Lucy Nyambura on July 2, when their defence hearing begins.
The two were charged with failing to comply with the procurement law by directly procuring contracts with Fifa and African Union of Broadcasters without approval of the Central Tender Committee.
They face two other charges of failing to comply with the law by directly procuring contracts with Radio Africa and Royal Media Services to co-host the World Cup tournament in June and July last year.
Exclusive rights
During the hearing of the case, Radio Africa Group Chief Executive Patrick Quarcoo told the court how they were allegedly duped by the KBC top officials into paying millions of shillings to broadcast the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Mr Quarcoo said they paid Sh26 million to KBC for rights to transmit the tournament hosted in South Africa in 2010.
It was only when a dispute arose that they realised the State corporation did not have exclusive rights from Fifa to host the matches.
“They (KBC) had criminally represented themselves as having the exclusive rights for the World Cup and took our money. They sold us air,” Quarcoo told a court.
He said at one time, Waweru informed him that they were under pressure from top Government officials to give the same rights to Royal Media Services.
KBC had entered into an agreement with Fifa to broadcast the 94 matches after paying $450,000 (about Sh36 million then).
The State corporation decided to partner with Radio Africa in the lucrative deal and rejected offers made by the Standard Group, Nation Media Group and Radio Salam.
A dispute arose when Radio Africa learned that KBC had also entered into a similar deal with Royal Media Services, who were already advertising the tournament.
The KBC/Fifa deal led to the sacking of Mr Waweru and Mr Oira, the Corporation Secretary, in September last year.
Testifying in the case, Quarcoo said they negotiated the deal with KBC in August 2009 and signed the agreement in December.
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