A court on Friday granted the anti-graft agency permission to present new evidence in the case of Sirisia MP John Waluke and Grace Wakhungu, who are defending a fraudulent award worth Sh564 million.
On November 4, 2014, a three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal (Hannah Okwengu, John Mativo, and Weldon Korir) issued the significant ruling in an application filed by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The judges allowed EACC to present new evidence in an appeal filed by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) against Erad Supplies and General Contractors, whose directors are Waluke and Wakhungu, in 2012.
Essentially, this is the evidence used to convict Waluke and Wakhungu, but it was never filed in the separate ongoing civil case at the High Court and now at the Court of Appeal.
Since 2012, the civil case has been pending in the Court of Appeal.
In this case, NCPB and EACC seek to vacate an arbitral award of Sh564 million made to Erad Supplies Limited and later confirmed by the High Court requiring NCPB to pay Erad Supplies' fraudulent claims.
Waluke and Wakhungu were found guilty of using Erad Supplies to defraud the government in a botched tender to supply maize to NCPB.
In its application to the Court of Appeal, EACC stated that the evidence was not available when the High Court heard the case and upheld a Sh564 million award in favor of Erad Supplies and its directors to the detriment of taxpayers.
In the 2012 civil appeal, NCPB and EACC argue that the arbitral award, pursuant to which Erad Supplies auctioned NCPB assets and received a payment of more than Sh297 million, was obtained fraudulently using forged documents.
The Magistrate's Court that convicted the two ordered that they repay the money to NCPB, but this is part of what Waluke has appealed in the criminal case.
Content created and supplied by: Jobcentre (via Opera News )
COMMENTS