Ongoro charged, diplomat Ruth Kitony to be arrested over Sh49m fraud

The Anti-Corruption Court on Monday issued a warrant for the arrest of Ruth Kanini Kitony, a Kenyan diplomat serving in Malaysia, over embezzlement of Sh48.9 million from the Kasarani Constituency Development Fund.

Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi ordered the arrest of the Kuala Lumpur-based diplomat alongside seven people who failed to turn up in court to answer to charges of conspiring to steal Sh48,907,826.

Ms Kitony, who was employed by the CDF Board as a District Development Officer before her appointment as a diplomat, did not present herself to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) last Friday for processing.

She also failed to present herself to the court for prosecution.

DEFENCE

Mr Mugambi disallowed a request by defence lawyers Dunstan Omari and Anitah Masaki to reject the State's plea for Ms Kitony to be arrested.

“She could not leave the Kenyan desk without a diplomat to attend to emerging issues or fly to Kenya to stand trial,” Mr Omari stated, noting the government had not replaced her.

The lawyer further noted that according to the EACC Act, once a civil servant is charged, he or she stays away from office until the graft case is determined.

“The accused was not going to go back to her office after pleading. She will have to stay around until the case is determined on half salary,” he said.

THE RULING

In his ruling, Mr Mugambi said the court could not buy the lawyer's explanation.

“The parent appointing ministry of Ms Kitony should have communicated to the court the position of the suspect in the graft case,” he said.

The magistrate further said that in the absence of a convincing explanation from the relevant government department, the court had just one option - “to issue a warrant of arrest as urged by State prosecutor Vincent Monda".

Ms Kitony is accused of abusing her office by improperly conferring a benefit of Sh1,033,000 to Ms Jecinta Akoth Opondi and Maurice Odhiambo Orongo, trading as Komala Construction, by signing payment vouchers as payment for supply of construction materials of Kasarani Girls' High School.

The offence was allegedly committed between November 26, 2008 and September 30, 2010 within Nairobi County.

ONGORO CHARGED

Meanwhile, former Kasarani member of Parliament Elizabeth Ongoro, her husband Ferdinand Masha Kenga and six others were charged on Monday with conspiring to embezzle that amount of money from the Kasarani CDF.

They all denied the charges and were each released on a cash bail of Sh3 million or a bond of Sh6.5 million with one surety.

Six other suspects in the case were charged last week.

Ms Ongoro denied a charge of fraudulently acquiring Sh4 million when she was MP from the Kasarani Girls Project Management Account, an offence said to have been committed on October 29, 2009.

She also pleaded not guilty to a engaging in construction of the girls' school without prior planning when she was the area's legislator's and the CDF's patron.

Mr Kenga is solely charged with receiving Sh4,138,820 from the Equity Bank account of his company, Accurate Construction and Engineering Works Limited, knowing the monies were the result of corrupt conduct.

Ms Ongoro was represented by lawyers James Orengo, Jotham Arwa and George Wajackoya.

The case will be mentioned on November 18.