Tribunal re-enacts saga at fuel station where Tunoi bribery took place

Contradictory claims were heard on Wednesday in the evidence of a former journalist testifying against a judge accused of taking a Sh200 million bribe to influence the outcome of an election petition against Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

Supreme Court Judge Philip Tunoi’s lawyer Fred Ngatia told a tribunal investigating the judge that Mr Geoffrey Kiplagat’s evidence has kept on mutating since he first spoke about the alleged bribe.

Mr Kiplagat, members of the tribunal and lawyers for parties on Wednesday visited a petrol station on Waiyaki Way in Westlands, where the alleged bribery took place.

SUITCASE

“The event at the petrol station lasted approximately three minutes and the money in a suit case was carried from the governor’s vehicle and handed over to the judge who was sitting in the backseat of the other vehicle where I was with the judge,” said Mr Kiplagat.

Mr Ngatia said in January, during an interview with NTV, that Mr Kiplagat told a different story, that the suitcase containing the money was thrown from one vehicle to the other.

But Mr Kiplagat said he had used the word ‘throw’ to refer to how the bag moved from one of the vehicles to the other.

A Mercedes Benz and a Toyota Prado were used to demonstrate how the vehicles were packed at the time of the alleged bribery.

A black bag filled with unknown materials was used to resemble the briefcase which was passed to the judge.

The tribunal also estimated the duration that was taken during the exchange.

Mr Kiplagat said he sought the services of senior lawyers to help him write an affidavit after he received threats to his life.

He relocated to his Eldoret home where he stayed for a year and had left the issue to rest until he received a call from the Judiciary ombudsman Kennedy Bidali, who asked to meet him over the alleged bribery.