Kenya Pipeline officials charged with graft

Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) officials were on Thursday arraigned in an anti-corruption court before principal magistrate Felix Kombo and charged under the Economic Crimes Act.

Charles Tanui, the Managing Director who doubles up as accounting officer KPC, is accused of unlawfully authorizing the payment of Euros 261,070.42 (Ksh28, 577, 155.47) to Redline Limited, a supply and installation company, without a formal contract.

Tanui is also alleged to have used his office to improperly confer a benefit of Euros 8,695.65 (Ksh951, 354.29) in respect to a tender that was not carried out.

Tanui was charged alongside KPC’s Chief Engineer Instrumentation and Control Officer Josphat Kipkoech Sirma, who is accused of making false certificate of completion of supply and installation a fact he knew was false.

Also in the dock was Redline’s Limited Chief Technical Manager Elias Maina Karumi who is alleged to have conferred benefit to a tender which was not carried out.

Redline company Limited with its officials have also been charged with fraudulent acquisition of public funds for a job not done.

All the accused persons denied the charges and were released on cash bail of Ksh700, 000 each with an alternative bond of Ksh3 million with surety of similar amount each.

The case is now set for mentioning on 30th November 2015

This comes just a day after Geothermal Development Company (GDC) Managing Director Silas Simiyu and other senior executives appeared before a Nairobi over abuse of office charges.

Simiyu and seven others were charged with flouting procurement rules in the awarding of a tender for transporting drilling rigs.

Nairobi’s anti-corruption Chief Magistrate Kennedy Bidali ordered that Simiyu and the company secretary Praxidis Saisi be released on a cash bail of Ksh8 million each.

Bidali also ordered the other accused individuals in the case to be released on a cash bail of Ksh5 million each. They are expected to be back in court on November 30 2015.

The GDC officials were among the 20 government officials that were arrested by EACC on Monday.