Charity Ngilu's in-law, MP's husband acquitted over Sh50m fraud

An anti-corruption court has acquitted the son-in-law of Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and the husband of Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire who were charged over a Sh50 million scam at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

The court released Mr Billy Indeche and Mr Dennis Apaa, together with their company BroadVision Utilities Ltd, which was said to have been awarded a tender irregularly.

Acting chief magistrate Doreen Mulekyo ruled that investigations were shoddy and that the prosecution evidence failed to implicate the two.

Ms Mulekyo said she was unable to find that the prosecution proved the charge against the suspects “beyond reasonable doubt" and that there was "no need to punish them for an oversight which was not of their own making during the questioned tendering process.”

Mr Indeche and Mr Apaa were on trial for presenting a falsified letter of recommendation, and the magistrate said it was impossible to ascertain whether they were the ones who actually prepared and presented it.

The charge stated that on or about June 11, 2008 at Maji House, they fraudulently presented a forged recommendation letter dated November 20, 2002 to Mr James Omwenga, purporting it to be genuine and signed by Mr Wilson Nyaga Karinga, a managing partner of CiVi-Tech Consultants.

“The water superintendent may have overlooked the discrepancy if at all he noticed the same... the court is unable to find that the prosecution proved the charge, the charge did not disclose a guilty mind on the part of the accused,” the magistrate said in her judgment on Thursday.

UKAMBANI BOREHOLES

The case hit the limelight in 2008 with sensational claims of bribery after the anti-corruption agency started investigating the tender awarded in favour of the company for the equipping of five boreholes in Ukambani.

The company is jointly owned by Ms Mbarire’s husband, Dennis Apaa, and Ngilu’s son in-law, Billy Indeche.

The letter in question was purported to show that the company was equipped and had the know-how and experience to deliver well above its competitors but its incorporation documents, according to the prosecution case, contradicted these allegations as they showed it was a greenhorn in the market.

Magistrate Mulekyo said that after perusing the evidence on record, it was impossible to prove whether the two businessman on trial actually produced the questioned document as witnesses who testified appeared to exonerate them.

“There was doubt on who prepared and produced the document, the investigations was not done properly,” the magistrate concluded.