Kenya Ports Authority Finance manager Patrick Wambugu Nyoike has been charged with graft related offences over alleged Ksh214.5 million fraud case.
Nyoike was arraigned in a Mombasa court on Monday and charged alongside a clerical officer identified as Isaac Obunga.
The finance boss pleaded not guilty to the five charges levelled against him and was released on a Ksh2 million cash bail or Ksh5 million.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji had on Sunday ordered that Nyoike be charged alongside his wife Jacinta Wambugu and his brother Alfred Hinga, who are directors of Nyali Capital Ltd (NCL).
But Jacinta did not appear in court on Monday. A medical report tabled in court showed that she had been indisposed.
The court ruled that the medical doctor who authored the report to appear on Tuesday, May 11, to verify the said report failure to which she will be considered to have absconded court.
Read: KPA Finance Manager Patrick Nyoike, Wife, Brother To Be Charged Over Ksh214 Million Graft
The other co-accused, Nyoike’s brother Hinga and Peter Ndichu, requested the court to facilitate their travel to Mombasa from Nairobi to take plea in the fraud case.
While preferring the charges yesterday, Haji said NCL is the company that received the payments of Ksh214.5 million after Nyoike facilitated the inclusion of the company as a KPA supplier.
“Patrick Wambugu Nyoike facilitated “Nyali Capital Limited’s micro finance business, to finance the KPA suppliers, Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) and Local Service Orders (LSOs) and thereafter utilized the KPA system to have the principal and the interest from the said suppliers remitted to Nyali Capital Limited’s account by the KPA,” said Haji in a memo dated May 10.
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“It is therefore, clear from the evidence that Patrick Wambugu Nyoike abused his office by facilitating Nyali Capital Limited to finance the KPA suppliers and to receive payments directly from KPA.”
Haji said that there was no contractual relationship between KPA and Nyali Capital Limited,an indicator of graft.
“This fact was known by Isaac Obunga, an employee of the KPA, who nevertheless irregularly defined Nyali Capital Limited as a vendor in the KPA vendor portal,” added Haji.
Read Also: 15 KPA Cleaners Held In Quarantine Over Sh420,000 Unpaid Bills
The DPP noted that says Nyoike failed to disclose his relationship with NCL bosses Hinga and Jacinta hence this demonstrated conflict of interest on his part
The money was allegedly wired from KPA to these private accounts between October 2014 and March 2017.
The company and Nyoike and all the players have been under investigation by Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) since last year.
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