IEBC worker ordered to testify in Sh105m tender fraud case
Mr Ben Gethi in court. He is charged alongside suspended IEBC employees with altering tender documents and forgery. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Solarmak Technologies was to supply the lanterns for Sh127 million but the company's tender documents were later altered to read Sh105 million.
- The IEBC employees are accused of conspiring to commit a felony by altering the substance of a tender document to favour Solarmak Technologies.
A magistrate has ordered an Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) employee to appear before the anti-corruption court to testify in a Sh105 million tender case.
Trial magistrate Lawrence Mugambi directed police to serve witness summons to Michael Douglas Oyaro to appear in court on October 7.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions James Warui Mungai said Mr Oyaro failed to turn up in court to testify though he had been summoned.
In the case, Ben Gethi is charged alongside suspended IEBC employees with altering tender documents and forgery.
Mr Gethi, a director of Solarmak Technologies Ltd, had submitted a bid for a tender to supply lanterns to be used in the March 2013 general elections.
The company was to supply the lanterns for Sh127 million while a competing company, Konnexions Systems Ltd, had offered to provide the lamps for Sh107 million.
But Solarmak Technologies' tender documents were later altered to read Sh105 million.
Mr Gethi is charged alongside Joyce Makena and former IEBC employees Adan Adano, Kennedy Ochae, Abdi Etema Ali, Gabriel Ngonyo Mutunga and Willie Gachanja Kimanga.
The IEBC employees are accused of conspiring to commit a felony by altering the substance of a tender document to favour Solarmak Technologies.
Mr Mutunga and Mr Kimanga have denied charges of failing to protect the tender documents while Mr Gethi has denied charges of forging a registration certificate for Solarmak.
He is also accused of forging a tax compliance certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority.
