Four Kenya Pipeline Company senior managers yesterday denied graft charges arising from the Sh1.9 billion Kisumu Oil Jetty scandal.
They are MD Joe Sang, company secretary Gloria Khafafa and Supply chain manager Vincent Cheruiyot.
They were charged with abuse of office, willful failure to comply with procurement laws and engaging in project without prior planning.
They were accused of committing the offence jointly with Infrastructure, Procurement, Finance managers Billy Aseka, Nicholas Gitobu and Samuel Odoyo.
They are accused of engaging in unplanned project between April 5 and May 31 last year.
All are separately charged with abuse of office.
In the abuse of office charge, Sang is accused of his office to improperly confer a a benefit to Southern Engineering Company by awarding them a tender to undertake the project at a cost of Sh 1, 963, 065, 422, an amount that exceeded the approved budget.
He is also of willfully failing to comply with public finance management laws by unlawfully authorising the payments for the project.
In the abuse of office charge, Aseka is accused of improperly requisitioning for the construction after the tendering was already concluded an arbitrary act that is prejudicial to the government.
Gitobu is accused of improperly initiating the project without procurement plan.
Khafafa is accused of executing the Sh 19.6 million contract at an amount that exceeded the approved budget.
Cheruiyot is accused of using his office to confer a benefit to the firm that undertook construction of the oil storage facility by arbitrarily providing a professional opinion leading to award of the tender.
The Oil Jetty was meant to improve the safety, reliability and ensure efficient delivery of petroleum products to KPC’s customers and minimise the challenges of storage space on the current 14-inch Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline.
A number of Eastern Africa countries including South Sudan, Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda - import huge amounts of petroleum products using trucks to transport them from Mombasa port through the Eldoret or Kisumu depots, a route considered inconveniencing and expensive.
But its construction costs were inflated.
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Sang, Khafafa, Cheruiyot and Gitobu denied the charges before chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti.
Aseka and Odoyo will be charged today. They had not been arrested when their colleagues were being rounded up from Friday.
Odoyo was recording statement at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters when his co accused persons were being charged.
Aseka's lawyer Danstan Omari said he was in Mombasa on official function when others were arrested and had presented himself to court.
Omari pleaded for his client to be admitted in similar terms as those set for the other suspects.
They were released on a bond of Sh3 million each with a surety of similar amount and an alternative cash bail of Sh2 million.
The suspects must also sign a personal bond of Sh 2 million and deposit their travel documents in court.
Their lawyers opposed higher bond terms requested by the prosecution. Senior assistant DPP Emily Kamau had pointed out that the court should consider the colossal amounts of tax payers money allegedly lost in the scandal in setting the bond terms.
But senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdulahi and Tom Ojienda said the offences are generic and the bail and bonds are constitutional rights available to all suspects unless their compelling reasons to deny them the same.
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The lawyers had convened earlier in the morning to strategise on how to ensure their clients are released before the close of business yesterday.
They appointed senior counsels Abdulahi and Ojienda to make the applications for bails to avoid taking too much time as each made their separate applications.
This was to ensure that they get ruling on bond before 2pm to be able to finish the process before 4pm as opposed to having the ruling being pushed to another day, which would mean their client would have ben forced to spend more time in custody.