Tunoi bribery tribunal wants communication data presented

A tribunal investigating allegations against a suspended Supreme Court judge now wants to be supplied with mobile phone communication data between people mentioned or questioned in the saga.

Tribunal chairman Sharad Rao told lead counsel Paul Nyamodi that the remaining witnesses would not appear until the tribunal gets to know if and how the communications occurred between and among the parties allegedly involved in the bribery scheme.

On Thursday, the tribunal was set to cross-examine Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero and another witness, Kiprop Chirchir, but deferred that to Tuesday next week as they await the mobile data.

Dr Kidero is alleged to have bribed Justice Philip Tunoi with Sh200 million in order to rule in his favour in an election petition filed by Ferdinand Waititu, now the Kabete MP.

Mr Chirchir is said to have accompanied the governor to a fuel station on Waiyaki Way, where the bribe was allegedly handed out.

Mr Rao said the team should first hear on Monday from two Safaricom employees, who are expected to shed light on the mobile conversations before the testimonies of Mr Kidero and Mr Kiprop are heard the following day.

“We have decided that before you (Mr Nyamodi) have the governor and Kiprop or for that matter another witness, we would now want to have evidence as to these different telephone calls which have been alleged to be made,” said Mr Rao.

He added that without the mobile phone data, the tribunal would remain “handicapped”.

Mr Rao also asked Mr Nyamodi to provide the tribunal with a list of “valuable” witnesses who are set to appear before the tribunal in the coming days so as to speed up the hearings.

He said the tribunal would want to see the list so as to determine whether they are of use to the tribunal.

Justice Tunoi’s lawyer, Fred Ngatia, agreed with the tribunal chairman, saying, “Let’s not have just people coming here to say I was there, I was not there. It’s totally unnecessary”.

He also asked to be supplied with the list of potential witnesses to appear on Monday next week.

The lawyer, however, expressed concern about the decision not to cross-examine Dr Kidero, saying he should have been informed in good time as he had spent considerable time preparing for the questioning.

He also asked to be given a chance in the near future to prove that the tribunal investigating the judge was not legally constituted.

Mr Ngatia said he would wait for all the witnesses to be cross-examined before making his submission to prove that the entire process is in violation of Article 168 of the Constitution.

Mr Ngatia also said Justice Tunoi might not take the witness stand as yet and also asked that the proceedings be expedited.

“We could be spending lots of time dealing with sideshows instead of dealing with the issue that is in the petition. At the appropriate time, you will allow me to point out to the tribunal what we perceive to be the scope of inquiry - we must define, demarcate it and then deal with it,” he said.

“Even if we were to define this is the scope of the inquiry and that inquiry did not proceed on the way the constitution says in article 168, then this process is null and void and nobody can breathe life to it and the only verdict that you can return is that the process was started in violation of the Article 168,” added the lawyer.