Chickengate: Trevy Oyombra to be quizzed by EACC

An Interim Independent Electoral Commission’s official loads ballot boxes and other voting materials onto a vehicle at Tac Centre in Eldoret East Constituency on August 3, 2010. FILE PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |

What you need to know:

  • Government officials allegedly received Sh50m to favour UK printing firm.
  • Investigators hope to get information that will enable them recommend prosecution.

An indicative course of action to be taken by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) will become clearer on Monday when the alleged mastermind of the “chicken” scandal Trevy Oyombra meets with investigators at Integrity Centre.

Mr Oyombra is scheduled to be the last person interrogated by the commission, a move that EACC officials told Sunday Nation was intended to allow them to compare his statement with those of former and current Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Kenya National Examination Council officials who have also recorded statements.

According to EACC officials who spoke to Sunday Nation, the investigators will be seeking to know from Mr Oyombra how he allegedly transferred the money he received from the British security printing firm Smith & Ouzman from his bank account to the election officials.

Mr Oyombra was the local agent for Smith & Ouzman.

The graft body will also be interested in establishing whether the alleged bribes were deposited by Mr Oyombra in the bank accounts of the electoral officials or not.

With that information, the commission will be seeking to establish whether the election officials had other bank accounts which have not been disclosed to the investigators.

In case the alleged bribes were given in cash, the commission will be interested in the venues of the meetings Mr Oyombra had with the officials.

The commission hopes that such information will assist them to retrieve CCTV footage of the venues to prove their case against the officials.

The commission has so far interrogated IEBC chairman Issack Hassan, former commissioner of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) and current Energy secretary Davis Chirchir and former Kenya National Examination Council boss Paul Wasanga.

All the officials mentioned as recipients of the bribes have categorically denied involvement.

THE ACCUSED

“We were not accused or suspects in London. The accused in London were the two (Britons) and their agent in the UK. We were not called to give evidence and it is not correct to say that because someone was jailed in the UK, the same should happen here,” Mr Hassan told journalists outside EACC headquarters on Thursday after being questioned by the investigators.

On Friday, Mr Chirchir and Mr Wasanga also maintained their innocence with the Energy secretary telling journalists that he would resign if charged with receiving bribes from a British printing firm.

“The law is very clear, Chapter Six of the Constitution is very clear. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Mr Chirchir said.

It will be the turn of former IEBC CEO James Oswago and Mr Oyombra to record statements with EACC investigators at the Integrity Centre.

The scandal involved the British firm paying an estimated Sh50 million in bribes to the elections and examination officials in order to secure lucrative contracts to print electoral and examination material.

Smith & Ouzman’s directors, Nicholas Charles Smith, 43, and his father Christopher John Smith, 71, were found guilty for bribing officials of the IIEC and the Knec bosses to get the printing contracts.

The elder Smith was sentenced to an 18-month suspended term for his role in the scandal while his son was sent to three years in jail by the Southwark Crown Court.

EACC investigators, the Sunday Nation was told, would also be pressing Mr Oyombra to disclose how much each of the officials mentioned received in bribes, if at all.

In addition, EACC is said to be scrutinising travel itineraries of the election officials for the period in question following revelations by the UK Serious Fraud Office that Smith & Ouzman paid their travel and accommodation expenses while they were in London.