State wants Waititu locked out of office

Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu (right) and co-accused (from left) Simon Kabucho, Zacharia Njenga, Charles Chege and Luka Mwangi at a Milimani court in Nairobi, yesterday. [George Njunge, Standard]

Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu spent another night in custody as he battled to save his term in office after facing charges in relation to alleged irregular award of Sh588 million contracts for roads repair.

Waititu, his wife Susan Wangari Ndun’gu, Kiambu County Chief Officer for Roads and Transport Luka Mwangi Waihinya, six county employees, a businessman and his wife were charged with various counts of conflict of interest, dealing with suspect property, money laundering and abuse of office. They denied the charges.

Tough conditions

State prosecutor Alexander Muteti asked the court to set tough bail conditions, including one to bar Waititu from returning to the county offices until the case is concluded.

“We must call corruption what it is and make it as expensive as it should be. The accused should not be allowed anywhere near the county offices and should keep away from his office just like any other public officer charged with corruption,” said Mr Muteti.

But Waititu’s lawyers, led by Tom Ojienda, asked trial magistrate Lawrence Mugambi not to be swayed by the High Court decision, given that constitutional office holders are protected from removal from office when facing criminal cases.

According to Prof Ojienda, denying the governor access to his office would be like removing him from office through the back door.

“A person having integrity issues cannot be barred from holding an elective public office since that will amount to overturning the electorate’s will. The courts should not be used to wade into political realms by setting unconstitutional bail conditions,” said Ojienda.

Waititu and his wife faced three charges of receiving Sh51 million through their companies — Saika Two Estate Developers Ltd and Bienvenue Delta Hotel — where it was alleged that they engaged in conflict of interest and dealing with suspect property.

The prosecution presented details of how the alleged fraud, was executed. Businessman Charles Mbuthia Chege, his wife Beth Wangeci Mburu, through their company Testimony Enterprises, are accused of hatching the plot to rip off Kiambu County through the roads contract.

The charge sheet stated that the alleged crime started in February 26, last year, when Chege and his wife presented false degree certificates to the Kiambu County tender committee to prove that their company was capable of undertaking the roads construction work.

“On February 26, 2018, Chege and Wangeci, being directors of Testimony Enterprises, engaged in a fraudulent procurement practice by submitting a bid document with another false recommendation letter from China Wu Yi Company,” it read.

They then submitted the bid to Kiambu County’s tender committee, which had Zacharia Mbugua, Joyce Ngina, Simon Kang’ethe, Anslem Wanjiku and Samuel Muigai as members.

The committee sat on March 5, last year, and approved the company’s bid without subjecting it to scrutiny. This led to them being charged with willful failure to comply with the law relating to procurement.

Charge sheet

The charge sheet indicated that the five illegally introduced a criteria for evaluating the tender for upgrading various roads to favour Testimony Enterprises.

On March 16, 2018, Waihinya, then county’s minister for Roads and Transport, was accused of using his office to approve and confer a benefit of Sh588,198,328 to Testimony Enterprises by awarding the contract to upgrade the roads when the company had no such capacity.

“Between July 2018 and March 2019 Chege and Wangechi engaged in money laundering by transferring Sh12 million to Saika Two Estate Developers and Sh7.2 million to Bienvenue Delta Hotel,” said the prosecution.

The magistrate will rule on the bail applications today.