Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs (PCS-MFDA) Musalia Mudavadi has tapped Standard Newspaper political writer Jacob Ng’etich as his new Director of Press Service.
Ng’etich will replace Salim Swaleh who was arrested and prosecuted for aiding fraudsters to defraud foreigners.
Ng’etich has been a long-serving political writer at the Standard where he was a senior political reporter.
Insiders said Ng’etich reported to his new station last week. He on Wednesday shared statements from the office.
Ng’etich, has been a long friend to Mudavadi.
He is escaping the financial challenges being experienced at his former employer.
Swaleh was among those arrested for alleged involvement in corruption activities.
The ministry said the arrests followed a tipoff that alerted OPCS-MFDA security, who then mounted intense surveillance at the OPCS-MFDA Railways Office to disrupt the reported nefarious acts of impersonation and misuse of the facility by the fraudsters.
They would individually gain entrance into the Railways Building where Mudavadi’s office is located, on different dates and times by falsifying their identities (as VIP guests or government officers), and the officers they purported to be visiting.
The victims were mainly foreigners who would be shepherded into the Railways Building ostensibly to meet high-ranking government officers for favours in exchange for bribes.
A Nairobi court last Wednesday directed Swaleh to take a plea.
Swaleh is accused of Sh5.8 million fraud.
Milimani Chief Magistrate Bernard Ochoi slated the matter on August 21, after lawyer Dunstan Omari made an application to have Swaleh and four other accused persons appear next week for plea taking following the Director of Public Prosecution’s decision to charge them.
Prosecutor James Gachoka on August 5, told the court that the accused persons wrote to the DPP seeking to have the charges levelled against them reviewed.
The court was told that the DPP was pursuing the file following ‘new evidence availed’ to him.
“We shall be seeking that they be allowed to appear before the plea court next week so that they would have arraigned themselves for that plea,” Omari told the court.
Omari accused the DPP of failing to notify the defense in advance, arguing that while they did not have the capacity to challenge the DPP’s decision, they were still entitled to be informed beforehand.
“It is the duty of the state to inform an accused person or a suspect the exact date time and court for plea taking,” the court was told.
He further asked the court to allow the miscellaneous file to remain active and to set a specific date for the suspects to appear before the plea court to ensure they have adequate time to prepare before taking their plea.
According to the charge sheet, Japolo Otieno, Terry Kemunto, Daniel Omondi, Salim Swaleh and John Wabomba are alleged to have conspired to defraud Sh5.8 million from a consultancy company.
The offense is said to have been committed on diverse dates between June 4, 2014, and June 22, 2014, at the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office, specifically at the office of the Director of Press Services, within Nairobi county.
“The five jointly with others not before court conspired to defraud $45,000 equivalent to Sh5.8 million from an engineering consultancy company, by falsely pretending that you were in a position to secure tender for construction of two stadia in Kenya, a fact you knew to be false,” reads the charge sheet in part.
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