Fake identities for Okemo, Gichuru

By David Ochami

Two prominent Kenyans fighting extradition request by Jersey court misrepresented themselves, concealing the fact one was then a Cabinet minister and the other head of a key parastatal.

A stunning claim is also made that one of the recipients of the kickbacks funnelled through the

accounts owned by the two then was another Cabinet minister referred to as ANO and a cabal of

corrupt personalities referred to as ‘SG Mafia’.

According to documents filed in court in the Island in May, when Nambale MP Chris Okemo opened a

bank account in Jersey several years ago, he presented himself as a ‘self-employed economist’.

Jersey investigators further claim the account was used to pass and conceal proceeds of crime. The same document allege Okemo’s co-suspect,

Samuel Gichuru, former Managing Director of Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) presented himself only as "a lawyer by profession."

Gichuru, who in his heydays had strong links with powerful Kanu politicians, purportedly did this in a dispute when a firm he allegedly had hired to manage his Windward Trading Company questioned some of these transactions and subsequently froze his finances.

Detective Lee Turner made the allegations in his sworn affidavit filed at the magistrate’s court in Jersey Island.

The lawyer for Okemo and Gichuru in the ongoing case in Nairobi, Fred Ngatia, declined to comment on the latest claims against his clients and disconnected his cell phone after being briefed on the details of the documents, copies of which The Standard

has seen.

"I can’t comment on anything,’’ said Ngatia after asking and being told what the document in question was.

But in a petition Ngatia Associates filed at the Nairobi High Court last month, the two argue that because

the alleged crime took place in Kenya, this country has sole jurisdiction to try them. Ngatia pointed out that in Turner’s affidavit, details were made

regarding depositions of partners who allegedly paid Windward and acknowledged that payments to Windward were made to Gichuru.

"Remarkably none of those persons have been charged with any criminal offence either in Jersey or the United Kingdom," he claimed.

Turner’s affidavit is filed in support of a case in which the prosecution is seeking to extradite the two

suspects. The prosecution will rely on Gichuru and Okemo’s associates and confessions from firms once contracted by KPLC and the findings of a forensic accountant with Jersey’s Joint Financial Crimes Unit.

David Angus Small, a forensic accountant

has, reportedly uncovered the complex paper trail, which tends to prove Okemo’s money from the alleged scheme was later invested in several ventures while Gichuru deployed his for personal use. Investigators have also received testimony

from John Glover, a businessman who apparently did business with the Kenya Government.

The documents allege in the testimony of Mike Durham, a director with one of the firms under investigation that contractors prepared kickbacks

to Gichuru to fund elections with some of the monies funnelled to a so-called SG Mafia, a minister whose

initials are given only as ANO and other people.

According to Turner, Okemo and Gichuru accepted bribes from foreign businesses that contracted with KPLC and hid them in Jersey.

These companies were, allegedly, made to pay

money to the account of Windward Trading Ltd, which prosecutors claim belonged to the former KPLC MD, or that he benefited from it and controlled

it using agents.

Turner claims the bribes in Windward, which was incorporated in Jersey in 1986, were sent to Okemo and Gichuru’s accounts on instructions of Gichuru’s agents. Turner alleges that through these schemes of ‘layering’ net payments of £1.3million (about

Sh140 million at the prevailing exchange

rates then) and US$ 650,000 (about Sh46 million then) were made.

The dossier

The dossier against the two, according to the sworn statement revolves around the testimonies of David

Piesold, Peter Garrat and Peter Illes who were partners in a firm, Knight Piesold and Partners, which

subsequently acquired the name KP, a civil engineering company that had worked in Kenya’s energy sector since the 1970s.

Piesold has since died but Garratt and Illes "have made depositions acknowledging that they paid Windward to get work from KPLC and to help the

work go smoothly," according to the affidavit. It also alleges KP also made payments to Camargo, a firm contracted to KPLC, Windward and Gichuru and Okemo’s accounts.

Camargo, according to investigators would also make direct payments to Gichuru and Okemo’s accounts as well as Windward.

According to this document KP’s "involvement with corruption did not stop with these payments" for it also "set up Gichuru’s personal bank account

for him in Jersey in 1983".

Messrs Piesold, Garratt and Illes managed Windward for Gichuru, according to Turner who also swears

Okemo was present with Piesold when he opened the bank account.

"Piesold was present when Okemo lied to the bank saying he was a ‘selfemployed’ economist, when in fact he was Minister of Energy," says the detective.

He also alleges that the former minister told his bankers that "correspondence on his account would be dealt with by the same KP partners".

The detective says Gichuru could not award huge contracts without the minister’s consent. In the affidavit it is alleged Peter Garratt told investigators

that "it was impossible to do work in Kenya without paying commissions to important figures" and discloses that "one person we paid... was Samuel

Gichuru".

A director of a separate firm contracted with KPLC Mike Durham is quoted in the document saying Gichuru was paid kickbacks to secure contracts. Durham allegedly recalled an occasion when Gichuru asked him to "put something into your bid which

would support our next elections".

Durham, who was a director with MacDonald Mott, once contracted to KPLC claims Gichuru was given bribes to award contracts, adding that firms paid for this loss by inflating costs of contracts.

Eight per cent

He also allegedly wrote in 1986 that kickbacks of five to eight per cent were paid to Gichuru and the ‘SG Mafia’ and a minister only known as ANO.

In Gichuru’s dispute with Walbrook, a firm he had allegedly hired to manage Windward, Turner swore that in 2002 Walbrook refused to carry out further instructions demanding the nature of transactions. It had come to Walbrook’s attention that receipts to

Windward were recorded as "commissions" and "consultancy fees" without much details on origin.

It is also alleged that Windward paid £900,000 and US$1.7million to a Gibraltarian firm called Arus Management described as "merely a conduit

for bank transfer" created to layer funds for the two suspects.

"Its records include cash books intended to allocate funds held by Arus for Gichuru or Okemo. Of the

US$650,000 sent to Okemo by Windward, US$450,000 went to him via Arus’ bank account in Gibraltar."