The trial kicked off in Nairobi on Monday December 17. Photo/ODPP.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 17- The case against embattled former Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer Ben Chumo and 14 others kicked off on Tuesday, with 45 witnesses lined up by the prosecution.
The officials are accused of procuring faulty and substandard transformers worth Sh480 million.
In its opening statement, the prosecution told the trial court sitting at the Milimani Law Courts, that it will tender strong evidence against the accused and will give an oral evidence in the trial against the top KPLC officials.
The 15 are also accused of willful failure to comply with the law relating to procurement, conspiracy to defeat justice and fraudulent acquisition of public property.
They are also facing charges of conspiracy to commit economic crime, aiding commission of felony and abuse of office.
The Prosecution’s first witness Linus Murithi, Senior Capacity Building Officer at Public Procurement and Regulatory Authority (PPRA) told court that he was appointed by PPRA’s MD to analyze KPLC’s tender documents.
He revealed that the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti had requested for the analysis.
Murithi told court that the analysis indicated that some members of the tender committee didn’t have appointment letters from authorizing officer, others didn’t participate in the process despite being nominated and that the tender evaluation criteria wasn’t disclosed when writing the final tender report.
They appeared at Milimani Anti-Corruption Court before trial Senior Principal Magistrate Felix Kombo.
The trial hearings will continue Tuesday.
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