A Nairobi court has granted bail to senior Kenya Power managers accused of abuse of office.
Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Monday released them on a cash bail of Sh1 million each, saying there was no compelling reason to deny them bail.
The managers are required to hand in their passports in court, to report to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations every fortnight and not to contact any of the witnesses.
The pretrial has been scheduled for August 6.
CRIMES
During today’s hearing in the morning, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alexander Muteti urged the court to remand all the suspects because they might compromise the case by interfering with the witnesses.
The suspects are former Managing Director Ben Chumo, his successor Dr Ken Tarus, company secretary Beatrice Meso and Mr Peter Mungai.
Others are general managers Joshua Mutua (commercial services), Mr Abubakar Swaleh (resource and administration), Mr Samuel Ndirangu (ICT), Mr Stanley Mutwiri (Infrastructure development), Mr Benson Muriithi (network management), Mr Peter Mwicigi (regional coordination) and head of supply chain Mr John Ombui.
In the first case, they denied a total of seven counts including conspiracy to commit an economic crime, abuse of office, failure to comply with procurement laws and conspiracy to defeat justice.
FAMILY ACCUSED
Also accused is Mr James Njenga, a director of Muwa, his wife Grace Wanjira and son John Anthony Mungai. Mr Njenga denied charges of fraudulent acquisition of public funds.
The court on Monday heard that the KPLC senior managers aided Muwa Trading Company to unscrupulously acquire Sh202 million for the supply of substandard transformers.
The managers are alleged to have tried to defeat the cause of justice when they sanctioned a court settlement of a case filed by Muwa before the High Court.
It is alleged that the management team tried to settle the case out of court leading to the loss of more than Sh200 million.
