Kenyan lawmaker fined hefty US$14 million over famine food supplies fraud

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Nairobi, Kenya, June 26 (Infosplusgabon) - A Kenyan anti-corruption court Thursday found John Waluke, a ranking lawmaker and chief whip, and a co-accused guilty of defrauding a government agency and ordered them to pay fines totaling US$14.4 million.

 

 

Waluke, member of parliament for Sirisia constituency in Western Kenya, was found guilty of fraud alongside Grace Wakhungu, 79, a little known trader from an influential Kenyan family.

 

Both were fined US$7 million each or seven years in prison for defrauding the National Cereals and Produce Board of Kenya (NCPB) of US$3.13 million.

 

The two directors of Erad General Contractors and Suppliers nearly left the NCPB bankrupt when they claimed payments for a breach of contract arbitration deal which appeared to have involved fraud.

 

Kenyan Anti-Corruption Court Judge Elizabeth Juma, chief magistrate, sent the two to serve seven years in prison and doubled original sum of the fraud committed by the two, which led to the confiscation of the NCPB property.

 

In 2004, the company owned by the two won a tender to supply maize to the national cereals board to cushion the country from drought and famine following crop failure and lack of rainfall.

 

The two company directors demanded letters of credit to guarantee payments before the supply of the maize to urgently deal with famine and drought.

 

However, the NCPB cancelled the tender after Erad Suppliers failed to deliver the maize.

 

The company owners used connections to force the NCPB to honour the tender.

 

Erad Suppliers had been awarded a contract of US$220, 000 but the company went on to claim damages and losses amounting to more than US$5.61 million.

 

The company used the ruling to attach the property of the state-owned maize firm, which is required to buy maize from farmers and supply to maize millers to stabilize the national supplies for Kenya’s staple food crop.

 

 

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/QZE/GABON2020

 

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