Another suspect charged in Sh39b fake arms deal

A fifth suspect in the fake Sh39 billion arms deal was yesterday charged with forgery and obtaining money by false pretense.

Chrispin Oduor Odipo (pictured) denied the 12 charges preferred against him but will be in custody until Monday when the trial magistrate will rule on his application for bail.

Odipo joins former Sports CS Rashid Echesa, Daniel Otieno Omondi alias General Juma, Clifford Okoth and Kennedy Mboya, who were charged on Monday with the same offences and each released on a cash bail of Sh1 million.

The charge sheet stated that Odipo conspired with Echesa and the other accused to commit a felony by making an End User Certificate, Non-Disclosure Notification of Award for tender to supply military equipment purporting that the document was from the Ministry of Defence.

The prosecution had claimed that Echesa presented himself to Kozlowski Stanley Bruno and Mamdough Mostafa Lofty as a personal assistant to Deputy President William Ruto in a bid to convince the businessmen to enter the controversial gun supply deal.

According to the prosecution, the plan to defraud the foreign businessmen started in October last year.

“Between October 2 and February 13 2020, the accused attempted to obtain Sh39.5 from Bruno by pretending that he would be awarded a tender by the State Department of Defence to supply military equipment,” read the charge sheet.

They are also accused of obtaining Sh11.5 million on October 21, 2019 from Bruno by pretending they were in a position to award him the multi-billion contract to supply military equipment.