Kilele and Ayiera denied the charges on Thursday when they appeared in court/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 12 – The Director General of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Antony Kilele and Procurement Manager Fred Ayiera have denied charges of failing to comply with the procurement procedures.
Kilele and Ayiera denied the charges on Thursday when they appeared before Lucy Nyambura, a magistrate at the Anti-Corruption court in Milimani in Nairobi.
Kilele denied two counts of abusing his office by conferring a benefit of Sh5.9 million and Sh1.4 million to Samuel Ogot Baker, who is also facing charges.
The court has now issued summons for Baker to appear on July 24 to take a plea.
The charge sheet presented in court indicates that the offences were committed between September 10 and October 30, 2009 in Nairobi.
Kilele is also accused of signing two payment vouchers in favour of BM Logistics Co. Ltd, a non-existing entity that purported to have provided warehouse services for census material to the KNBS.
The two were released on a cash bail of Sh500,000 each.
The officials were arrested on Tuesday by Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission who set them free on bond pending their Thursday court appearance.
“The investigating officers arrested the officials this (Tuesday) morning from their respective offices and processed them at Integrity Centre for approximately four hours,” EACC Spokesman Nicholas Simani said in a statement.
Kilele and the procurement manager are alleged to have violated procedures when purchasing storage space for census materials.
“Kilele and Ayiera jointly and willfully failed to comply with the law relating to procurement, namely, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act by not using the open tendering method as stipulated in Section 29 (1) of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 in the procurement of storage space for census materials,” the EACC statement sent to newsrooms said.
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