DPP drops charges against JamboPay CEO in Ksh.1 billion NHIF scandal

The Director of Public Prosecutions has withdrawn charges against three persons including a company charged in the Ksh.1.1 billion scandal at the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

In a letter signed by Senior Assistant DPP Alexander Muteti the three persons namely; Danson Muchemi Njuji, Robert Muriithi Muna and M/S Webtribe Limited are set to be made prosecution witnesses who will testify in the case.

Muchemi is the Chief Executive Officer of JamboPay, which is registered as Web Tribe.

“Following your request for the review of the decision to charge your clients Danson Muchemi Njuji, Robert Muriithi Muna and M/S Webtribe Limited we have reviewed the evidence on record and your offer as captured in Danson Muchemi Njuji’s affidavit sworn on November 2019 and we are amenable to having the charges against the three terminated and under section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code..,” reads the letter.

Further, the three are and severally expected to commit themselves to fully cooperate with the ODPP in the prosecution.

They are also supposed to make a full and frank disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the award of the contract and its extension.

Further, negotiations regarding any outstanding payments be undertaken between Webtribe Limited and NHIF without involving the ODDP’s office.

In response, the three accused have committed to implement and complete the contract for the purchase of the Integrated Revenue Collection Management System.

Muchemi was in 2018 charged alongside 19 others including former NHIF CEOs Simeon Ole Kirgotty and Geoffrey Mwangi.

The accused were charged with 17 counts among them abuse of office, willful failure to comply with the law relating to management of public funds among others.

The company — Webtribe Limited — was contracted to offer revenue collection services to NHIF without proper planning leading to loss Ksh.1.1 billion of public funds.

This is not the first case in which the Webtribe CEO Danson Muchemi has been dropped as a suspect in a case and made a prosecution witness. In the Governor Mike Sonko case, the DPP amended the charge sheet in which Muchemi was charged alongside Sonko and made a prosecution witnesses.

Meanwhile, Global Legal Action Network has written to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) complaining over the decision to drop charges against the three and have them as prosecution witnesses.