Mwaliko was found guilty by trial magistrate Lucy Nyambura/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 5 – Former Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Sylvester Mwaliko has been fined Sh3 million or face three years in jail in default, after he was found guilty of facilitating the Sh7 billion Anglo Leasing scandal.
Mwaliko was found guilty by trial magistrate Lucy Nyambura who ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that he acted in disregard of procurement laws.
The anti corruption magistrate said the former accounting officer was guilty of arbitrarily awarding and facilitating the Anglo Leasing contract.
On each of the three counts he will pay Sh1 million or in default serve a maximum of three years in jail.
“As the accounting officer he failed to follow the procurement procedures. As accounting officer, he had the responsibility to ensure that everything was done according to the law,” she ruled.
In his defence in March this year, Mwaliko had said that he signed the contract because former Vice President Moody Awori who was his boss at the time had forwarded the contract to him and as such, he was obligated to approve it.
“A contract of this magnitude required that proper procedures be followed. There is sufficient evidence that the accused acted without consulting the user department which is the Ministry of Immigration in signing and endorsing the contract document,” the court ruled.
The contract was for the supply and installation of a new passport issuing system for the department of Immigration to Anglo Leasing and Finance Limited.
Mwaliko was charged on May 16, 2005 with three other senior government officials, Joseph Magari (former PS Treasury), Wilson Sitonik – former director of government information technology services at the Treasury and David Onyonka, a former head of debt management at the Treasury.
However, Magari, Sitonik and Onyonka were set free in March this year due to lack of evidence and Mwaliko put on his defence.
The magistrate held that there was no evidence that Magari did anything wrong in signing the contracts which were budgeted for.
She also found that Magari was not supposed to verify the said contracts before signing them as alleged by the prosecution.
Evidence tendered in court convinced the magistrate that Magari did not come into contact with the proposal of the disputed contracts.
“After analysing the evidence adduced, this court is of the view that he did not do anything wrong in signing the contracts because he did so on the advice of former Finance Minster David Mwiraria,” she declared.
Sitonik and Onyonka, the magistrate observed, did not recommend the award of a passport issuing system contract to Anglo-Leasing Finance Limited.
There was also no evidence that Onyonka acted without regard to technical evaluation of the contracts by the user department in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
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