Ex-registrar Shollei charged afresh with abuse of office

Former Judiciary Chief Registrar Gladys Shollei was on Monday charged afresh with abuse of office and wilful failure to comply with procurement laws regarding a tender for the construction of pre-fabricated court buildings.

Mrs Shollei was charged alongside seven others.

The decision was made after Senior Principal Magistrate Liz Gicheha ruled in favour of the prosecution’s request to have the names of all the eight accused in one charge sheet so that they could face the accusations jointly.

The defence, led by Ms Shollei’s lawyer Paul Ng’arua, strongly opposed the request, arguing that the accused would be prejudiced. However, the magistrate dismissed the argument.

“It is unfortunate that the prosecution is coming 10 months later after the accused were first charged and is now seeking to change the charge sheet, which clearly shows what they are charged with, but, it still remains the responsibility of the defence to prove otherwise and I therefore find that there will be no prejudice suffered if the amendments are made; leave is hereby granted,” Magistrate Gicheha said.

Ms Shollei was charged alongside her deputy Kakai Kissinger, former director of supply chain management Martin Otieno Okwata, former director of finance Benedict Abonyo Omollo and tender committee members Wycliffe Wanga Ombunde, Nicholas Muturi Okemwa, Nicholas Mbeba and Thomas Oloo Atak.

Ms Shollei, Mr Kissinger, Mr Okwata and Mr Omollo are jointly accused of abusing office contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act on January 17, 2013, when they allegedly varied the terms and conditions of a contract without approval from the tender committee.

They are accused of using their offices to improperly confer a benefit to Timsales Ltd contrary to public procurement regulations.

The eight denied the charges and the case proceeded to hearing, where four witnesses testified. The hearing continues Tuesday and Wednesday.

As employees of the Judiciary as well as members of the pre-contract negotiation committee for the construction of the pre-fabricated court buildings, they are accused of using their offices to improperly confer a benefit to Timsales Ltd contrary to public procurement regulations.

The four are also accused of jointly and wilfully failing to comply with the law relating to procurement regulations by failing to seek approval from the tender committee to conduct pre-contract negotiations on the said date, three years ago.

In addition, the four are further accused of unilaterally increasing the advance down payment from 10 per cent to 50 without the approval of the tender committee though their roles in the Judiciary involved management of public revenue.

The questionable procurement deals refer to the construction of court buildings in Tawa, Mavoko and Garsen.

Onesmus Nzomo, a senior supply chain manager who had been seconded to the Judiciary by the National Treasury, told court that the tender in question was processed in accordance with the law.

He told the court that he had been appointed by Ms Shollei to the tender committee and his role in the Judiciary was to set up procurement standards.

He, however, amused the court when he testified that he worked for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008 as an intelligence officer though he could not disclose who he was reporting to or whether he had an appointment letter for that position.

“I am a certified integrity assurance officer with a certificate presented to me after being trained. That is what we operated on. I was just performing a role on intelligence and I did not report to anyone but my job was to whistle-blow whenever things went wrong,” Mr Nzomo said.

He also denied knowing about a pre-contract negotiations tender committee, a body that the defence told the court never existed.