Njeru revealed that the email, which is also indicated in Kiplagat’s sworn affidavit, was sent in segments, on two different days in the month of February 2015/MIKE KARIUKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 28 – The tribunal investigating Supreme Court Judge Phillip Tunoi has been adjourned to May 17 to allow witness Mike Njeru retrieve an email he received from Geoffrey Kiplagat, the judge’s accuser.
The matter was raised by Tunoi’s lead counsel Fred Ngatia, who says it will be imperative to ascertain whether Kiplagat’s affidavit of November 22, 2014 was backdated.
“In word format it means it was in draft (the document), which means you can change from one to another. But somehow, this document says it was completed on 22nd September 2014, what is your answer to that?” he asked Njeru.
“Somebody is taking this country for a ride. Is it probable that this document was backdated?”
His argument was that the document could have been drafted in February 2015, “and then thereafter it was signed but backdated.”
Kiplagat’s sworn affidavit is dated November 22, 2014 and according to Ngatia, it has a lot of discrepancies while compared to the email he sent.
Njeru revealed that the email, which is also indicated in Kiplagat’s sworn affidavit, was sent in segments, on two different days in the month of February 2015.
During Thursday’s sitting, Njeru described the inconsistencies in the email compared to the sworn affidavit as ‘ridiculous’ with Tunoi poking holes in the damning statement that accuses Tunoi of receiving a Sh200 million bribe from Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to favour him in an election petition.
“When I got this email, the first thing I did was to call my good friend John (Osogo) Governor Kidero’s aide. I was shocked and perturbed by receiving this kind of a document from Kiplagat; somebody I knew very well, trusted and people from my office treated very well.”
Njeru told the tribunal he could not understand what “his IT guy did with the email.”
Lawyer Ngatia also wanted to establish the original format of the email to ascertain whether it could have been possible that some changes were carried out.
According to Kiplagat, he was asked by Njeru and Kidero’s aide Osogo to approach Justice Tanui.
“When I received the email, I asked John whether he was involved in anything like that as stated in the affidavit,” Njeru told the tribunal but explained it was after Kiplagat failed to pick his call.
Lawyer Ngatia also wants the accuser’s affidavit which was handed over to the Judicial Service Commission presented at the tribunal.
On April 26, two detectives testifying said Kiplagat had sought their ‘help’ to extort money from the judge, a claim he has since refuted.
The officers revealed that Kiplagat wanted Justice Tunoi and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, being senior members of the society, “threatened by plainclothes officers or get them handcuffed by uniformed police officers.”
His proposal was for the two officers to accompany him during unspecified dates to demand for his Sh30 million share of the Sh200 million allegedly given to Justice Tunoi.
One of the officers, Assistant Inspector General of Police Stanley Cheruiyot says Kiplagat claimed that Justice Tunoi and Kidero were to give him Sh30 million for the role he played as a link between the two.
On Tuesday, the tribunal visited Petro fuel station along Waiyaki way, where the alleged Sh200 million bribe changed hands.
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