A lawyer was Wednesday arrested following a probe into a complaint made by an American national on a fake tender diddle that saw his companies lose over Sh182 million to a ring of scammers in Nairobi.
Detectives from the Operations Support Unit arrested the key suspect within the precincts of Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi in a dramatic chase.
Michael Otieno Owano, an advocate and supposed face of Owano Michael & Co. Advocates was arrested after a session he had attended at court for the mention of another criminal case in which he is the accused person.
The facts preceding his arrest date back to 2022 when the proprietor of the American-based company namely Underground Pipeline Rehabilitation Company was lured to jet in the country by one Alvin Alexander (the purported CEO of Orion AST Company), to allegedly meet some government officials and discuss the award of tenders by the Kenyan government.
According to police, oblivious of the prime suspect’s choreographed machinations, the complainant flew into the country, where they held several meetings in various offices and was handed three different fake tender documents.
The first one was tender No KCAA/032/2021-2022 for Supply, Installation and Commissioning of Area Control Centre and Disaster Recovery System equipment.
The other was tender No ICTA/RFP/03/2022-2022 for provision of Consultancy Services for the Process of Design, Implementing and maintenance of an Information Management System (ISMS).
The third one was tender No. MEWNR/T/18/2021-2022 for supply, Delivery, Installation and Commissioning of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS).
Investigations show in the process, the complainant was hoodwinked to make payments to facilitate the tenders and work permits as part of the conditions to be met before commencing the projects.
Payments amounting to USD1,617,200 (equivalent to Sh182,743,600) were made as instructed by the purported government officials, through four different escrow accounts operated by four law firms which include Owano Michael & Company Advocates – $90,000 for legal fees for contracts 1&2, Ollando Misare & Associates, LLP – $30,000 for legal fees, $262,000 and $285,000 for Bid Bond for contract 3 and Dennis Onyango & Company Associates – $200,200 for work permits for Orion employees.
Ouko Angado Co. Advocates took $750,000 for work permits for Orion employees, investigations show.
What followed the payments were months of being taken in circles, with the once hospitable and respectable members of the syndicate blocking contact and foiling scheduled meetings.
Devastated, the complainant reported the fraud with the DCI and investigations were launched.
Owano Michael who is not new to court corridors over such scams, was taken into custody and processed for arraignment today, but was later released on cash bail to await the approval of the charges preferred against him by the ODPP.
His accomplices are also being pursued, police said.
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