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Okemo, Gichuru lose bid to block extradition proceedings

Okemo and Gichuru are charged with money laundering and using a company based in Jersey Island to sanitise the proceeds accrued from their ventures/COURTESY ODPP

Okemo and Gichuru are charged with money laundering and using a company based in Jersey Island to sanitise the proceeds accrued from their ventures/COURTESY ODPP

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 18 – Former Cabinet Minister Chris Okemo and ex-Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) Managing Director Samuel Gichuru have lost a bid to block extradition proceedings to face corruption related charges in Jersey Island.

Okemo and Gichuru are charged with money laundering and using a company based in Jersey Island to sanitise the proceeds accrued from their ventures.

Investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) indicated that the company was incorporated by Gichuru at a time when he was serving as the managing director of KPLC and that the company received several suspicious payments from known and unknown companies based within Kenya and beyond between 1986 and 2003.

READ: EACC could save Gichuru, Okemo extradition

The two wanted their extradition blocked claiming that there was no legal basis to extradite them to Jersey Island to face money laundering charges.

Okemo and Gichuru had been seeking a declaration that no fair trial can be obtained within the unusual court systems operated by the Island of Jersey.

They had pointed out that the issue can only be decided in a constitutional petition in the High Court and not any other court.

Okemo and Gichuru are accused of abusing their offices by using proxy companies to squander public funds over 10 years ago, according to documents sent to the Kenyan Government by the bailiff and Chief Justice of the Island of Jersey, Channel Islands.

They are charged with having received bribes amounting to hundreds of millions of shillings from international companies between 1999 and 2002.

The amount received in bribes from the companies is pegged at Sh902 million and was allegedly paid through various companies.

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Okemo served as Energy Minister between 1999 to 2001 before he was moved to the Finance docket where he served between 2001 and 2003.

Gichuru served as the Managing Director of KPLC between 1983 and 2003.

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