Ex-court officials charged over CJ house

Former Judiciary chief registrar Gladys Shollei missed her day in court as her co-accused were charged with illegally procuring an official residence for the Chief Justice.

The grand house in Runda, valued at Sh310 million, was the subject of a bitter falling-out between Mrs Shollei, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and the Judicial Service Commission, leading to her sacking in October 2013.

Her lawyer, Mr Paul Ng’arua, informed chief magistrate Kennedy Bidali that Mrs Shollei was out of the country and had written to the Judiciary requesting that she be allowed time to return before pleading to the charges.

“Mrs Shollei left the country on July 27 and was not aware she will be required in court to take a plea.

"She will be back on August 20 and will present herself when required,” said Mr Ng’arua.

Mr Bidali, who also doubles as the Judiciary ombudsman, allowed the request and deferred her pleading to the charges to August 24.

Mrs Shollei was to face three counts of abuse of office, wilful failure to comply with laws governing management of public funds and engaging in a project without proper planning.

“Between April 16 and 30 being the chief registrar and accounting officer of the Judiciary, you used your office to improperly confer a benefit to Johnson Nduya Muthama Ltd by approving payment of Sh310 million for the purchase of a residence for the Chief Justice,” read the charge sheet.

The company alleged to have received the money from Mrs Shollei is associated with Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama.

In the second count, the former chief registrar was alleged to have failed to ensure that purchase of the residence was done in a manner that was effective, efficient, economical and transparent.

Those charged were Mrs Shollei’s former deputy Francis Kakai Kissinger, former supply management director Martin Okwata, former ICT director Tom Atak, former finance director Benedict Omollo, former director of revenue Wycliffe Wanga and Nicholas Mbeba, a member of the tender committee.

The six served as members of the Judicial Tender Committee and were accused of approving the purchase of the house without proper planning.

“Being members of the tender committee, you wilfully failed to comply with the law by rejecting the submissions of the evaluation committee to award the tender for purchase of the Chief Justice residence to the tenderer with the lowest evaluated price without any justification,” read the charge.

They were further accused of failing to ensure that the Judiciary did not pay in excess of the prevailing market prices in the purchase of the fully furnished residential property from Johnson Nduya Muthama Holdings Ltd for the sum of Sh310 million.

They all denied the charges and were released on a cash bail of Sh600,000 each, with the case scheduled for mention on August 24 to fix a hearing date.

The charges were a culmination of nearly two years of investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission since Dr Mutunga forwarded them the file alleging misappropriation of public funds at the Judiciary.

The Judicial Service Commission had relieved the former registrar of her duties over allegations of financial mismanagement, misbehaviour, insubordination, mismanagement in human resource, irregularities and improprieties in procurement.