• Lenolkulal was in 2019 charged with abuse of office and graft-related counts before the Milimani anti-corruption magistrate’s court.
• He was charged with four counts of abuse of office and conflict of interest leading to the loss of Sh84 million in public funds from the Samburu county government.
Image: The Star
Former Samburu Governor Moses Lenolkulal will today give his final submissions before a magistrate retreats to make the judgment in his Sh84 million corruption case.
Lenolkulal was in 2019 charged with abuse of office and graft-related counts before the Milimani anti-corruption magistrate’s court.
He was charged with four counts of abuse of office and conflict of interest leading to the loss of Sh84 million in public funds from the Samburu county government.
He was accused of using his company- Oryx service station- to supply petrol and diesel to the county government.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said that was a clear case of conflict of interest.
The charge sheet showed Lenolkulal ‘knowingly acquired direct private interests in contracts between Oryx and Samburu for the supply of fuel”.
He was charged alongside Hesbon Ndathi and eight others.
The court in July last year found he has a case to answer.
That was after Anti-Corruption Court Chief Magistrate Thomas Nzyoki considered the testimony of 11 prosecution witnesses and 388 documentary exhibits that were presented throughout the hearing.
Lenolkulal told the court that his first move after his election as Samburu governor in 2013 was to declare his interest in Oryx Service Station.
He wrote a letter to the county secretary declaring his interest.
The letter was copied to all accounting officers and procurement officers.
It’s based on this declaration that Lenolkulal said the charges levelled against him are misplaced.
He said the investigative agencies ought to have considered his declaration before proceeding to charge him.
“The prosecution did not undertake adequate time to study the details regarding this case. We still believe it was a wrongful prosecution,” said Lenolkulal.
He said the conflict of interest against himself having been declared therefore cleared him from any wrongdoing.
“I have never benefited from any funds from Samburu county government paid through or otherwise transacted through Oryx service station,” he said.
Lenolkulal claimed he later transferred the proprietorship of Oryx and leased the station to Hesbon Ndathi to avoid any cases of conflict of interest.
He said he ceased being a signatory of the Oryx account with Kenya Commercial Bank in October 2015 upon recovery of monies from debtors some of whom were the national government.
But the prosecution’s case is that Lenolkulal used his proxies to conceal the real ownership of the Oryx service station in a bid to unlawfully acquire Sh84 million from the county.
In his testimony in chief, the Investigating Officer Joel Nyongesa said Ndathi was an agent used by Lenolkulal to benefit from unlawful transactions.