NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 2 – The 408-million-shilling graft case against Kenya Power Senior Managers is set to resume on Wednesday with the prosecution led by Alex Akula expected to present more witnesses.
The court will receive more testimonials in the case where former Kenya Power Chief Executive Ben Chumo and 14 other employees of the utility firm are facing charges relating to the supply of faulty transformers.
During a hearing on Tuesday, the court was told that indeed the transformers procured by Kenya Power (KPLC) required some repairs.
Chief Engineer Technical Services, Nairobi Region Engineer Jeremiah Simiyu and Engineer Wang’ombe Theuri who was the Industrial Area Workshop Shift supervisor revealed that they were both nominated to go to India and conduct Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) on the manufactured transformers.
“They used International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC’s) standards and KPLC’s specifications to test the transformers, however they noticed the transformers needed some changes before meeting KPLC’s specifications but were quality transformers,”the office of the Director of Public Prosecution told court.
Upon that diagnosis, they requested the manufacturer to make adjustments and wrote a report on the quality of the transformers to KPLC.
Chumo and his fellow executives at Kenya Power were in 2018 accused of entering into a contract with a private firm for the supply of transformers, which turned out to be faulty.
Prosecutors said the deal also flouted procurement rules for State entities.
Those charged with economic crimes alongside Chumo include former Managing Director Ken Tarus, Beatrice Meso, K.P. Mungai, Joshua Mutua, Abubakar Swaleh, Samuel Ndirangu, Stanley Mutwiri, Benson Muriithi, Peter Mwicigi and John Ombui.
Also charged in the scandal are directors of MUWA trading company, James Mungai, Grace Mungai and John Mungai.
The charges include conspiracy to commit an offence, aiding the commission of a felony, willful failure to comply with procurement laws, conspiracy to defeat justice and fraudulent acquisition of public property.
It is alleged that on diverse dates between August 3, 2012, and June 12, the accused committed economic crimes by fraudulently procuring transformers worth over Sh400 million.
Muwa supplied KPLC with 501 transformers as at May 22, 2015. Some 327 failed on installation and had to be repaired.
