Saturday, March 12, 2011

I refused Sh300,000 bribe, says Sonko


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Share/Save/Bookmark Makadara MP Gideon Mbuvi yesterday told the anti-corruption court how he turned down a Sh300,000 bribe to misappropriate the CDF kitty. Mbuvi, also known as Sonko, said the money was offered to him to approve non existing projects.
He was giving evidence in a case where Vincent Shimoli, a former official of the Makadara CDF committee, is charged with fraud. Shimoli and co accused Michael Maina have denied two counts of corruptly offering the MP a bribe on January 11 at Golden Gate Court in South B, Nairobi.
Sonko claimed the bribe was offered to him so that he could authorise the withdrawal of Sh5 million. He claimed that more Sh5 million from the constituency CDF kitty has been stolen.
He told anti-corruption magistrate Lucy Nyambura that he recorded a statement with the anti graft body over the missing millions. He said allaegations of misappropriation of funds started after he sacked officials who were working under the patronage of former MP Dick Wathika and appointed a new team. His team said about Sh40 million had already been misappropriated.
He said he got more suspicious when he received a letter from a school in his constituency acknowledging donations from the CDFoffice. He said neither he nor the CDF office knew anything about the school. “I approached the former chairman and confronted him about the matter after I learnt he was involved. I questioned him how he misled my people and he told me he knew the headmaster of the school. That is when he offered me the money,” Sonko said.
The MP said Shimoli told him that he would give the headmasters Sh50,000 in return if they would acknowledge receiving desk and lockers from the CDF. Sonko said he pretended to play along but instead reported the incident to KACC.
He said the two told him that he should accept the money to recover what he spent during campaigns. He claimed Sh5 million was withdrawn from the kitty and they were in the process of withdrawing a further Sh4.8 million.

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