Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Accused ‘paid to hide Sh10m’

Nairobi mayor Geoffrey Majiwa before the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi on October 26, 2010.
Photo/FILE Nairobi mayor Geoffrey Majiwa before the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi on October 26, 2010.
By PAUL OGEMBA pogemba@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, July 4 2011 at 17:48

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A businessman was paid Sh100,000 by a former chief finance officer at the Local Government ministry for agreeing to deposit for him Sh10 million in his account, a Nairobi court was told on Monday.
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Mr Peterson Gichana said he was paid the amount at Barclays Bank, Westgate branch, after withdrawing Sh5 million for Mr Boniface Okerosi Misera.
He said that in February 2009, Mr Misera called him and requested if he could deposit some money in his account.
Big basket
“On February 23, 2009, I went to the bank and confirmed he had deposited Sh10 million. He then asked me if we could go to the bank the next day to withdraw the amount,” said Mr Gichana.
He said that they met at Barclays Plaza and withdrew Sh5 million in cash on February 24, 2009.
The bank then referred them to the Westgate branch to withdraw the remaining Sh5 million since they did not have enough money.
It was then that he was rewarded with the Sh100,000 for lunch after being issued with a cheque worth Sh5 million.
He tickled the court when he said he advised Mr Misera and a friend he had come with to carry a big basket to put the money because the bundles were so many.
Mr Gichana was testifying in a case in which former Nairobi Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa is charged alongside Mr Misera, former deputy town clerk Geoffrey Kahindi Katsoleh, and Mr Cephas Kamande Mwaura.
They are accused of conspiracy to defraud the ministry of Sh283.2 million through a cemetery land purported to have been purchased at Mavoko municipality in Machakos district.
Asked why he did not question where the money had come from, Mr Gichana said since Mr Misera was his nephew and a friend, he knew the transaction was genuine.
The witness said that it was not until October 2009 when he received a summon from the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and saw press reports of the cemetery land scam that he realised the money might have been obtained fraudulently.
He denied that the transaction was business related, saying it involved working on trust and friendship.
“I do not know Mr Misera as a businessman. I knew him as an officer in the Ministry of Local Government and only did business with him for the supply of computers to their offices,” said Mr Gichana.
Earlier, the bank’s investigations manager Lilian Nyambura Kamau confirmed that the transaction took place although she could not to establish where the money came from.

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