Ex-MP Danson Mungatana charged with fraud

Former Garsen MP Danson Mungatana and his business associate Collins Paul Waweru have been charged with fraud.

They were released on a Sh200,000 cash bail each after denying charges of forgery of documents and obtaining money by false pretence.

The former MP appeared at the Kibera Law Courts Wednesday morning where he faced charges of conspiracy to defraud a businesswoman of Sh1 million.

Their lawyer yesterday asked the court to drop the charges against them after they began out-of-court settlement talks with the complainant.

However, prosecutors rejected the move on grounds that the duo's offences were criminal in nature.

“The Ministry of Defence is involved as a complainant. Inasmuch as they want to reconcile with the complainants, most of the charges are by the State. This is a matter of public interest,” Prosecutor Nancy Kerubo said yesterday.

According to the charge sheet, they obtained the money from Ann Wairimu Thumi and Cynthia Muthoni Kamau with intent to defraud.

They allegedly obtained Sh930,000 from Ms Kamau by falsifying Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) and letters of acknowledgement for expression of interest for supply of dry food stuff in favour of Beni Trading Company.

The letters were signed by one C.K Mundui and were purported to have been issued by the Ministry of Defence Ulinzi house, the charge sheet indicates.

Other forged LPOs were purported to have been signed by the chairman of the ministerial tender committee, Ministry of Defence, a fact the accused persons knew to be false or untrue.

They allegedly obtained the second amount of Sh930,000 from Ms Thumi after they pretended that they were in a position to assist her win a tender for supplying foodstuff and construction material to the Department of Defence.