• DPP requests four more witnesses; trial magistrate to rule on request on Tuesday. More than 100 prosecution witnesses have testified.
• The sprawling Anglo Leasing web involved various companies, services not delivered and the E-Cops security system.
Director of Public ProsecutionsNoordin Haji wants four more witnesses to testify in the Sh3.5 billion Anglo leasing case against three former PSs and three businessmen.
In the five-year-old case, ex-Principal Secretaries Joseph Magari, Dave Mwangi and David Onyonka and businessmen Deepak and Rashmi Kamani, together with their father Rasmi Chamanlal, have denied conspiring to defraud the government of more than Sh3.5 billion.
That's a trifle of the billions allegedly lost in the saga dating back to the Mwai Kibaki administration.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Mutuku said the state wishes to add four more witnesses before the final witness, the investigating officer, could start testifying.
More than 100 witnesses have already testified and investigating officer is expected to wind up the prosecution case.
But defence lawyers led by Kioko Kilokumi have told trial magistrate Martha Mutuku that they object to more witnesses.
The magistrate will deliver her ruling tomorrow, September 10.
During the last hearing, the court was told that international businessman Bradley Birkenfeld disowned signatures on documents alleged to have been used in transacting security projects.
He also had denied being a director of international company Infotalent Ltd, which is at the centre of the Anglo leasing €59,688,250 policing project known as E-Cops.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director Julius Muraya testified that he and his colleague interviewed Birkenfeld.
He said the businessman told them that the signatures said to be his were forged and that he has never been a director of that company.
Questioned by Mutuku, the witness who is also the head of the Mutual legal Unit, told the court that they interviewed Birkenfeld. He said they and showed him a proposal by Infotalent Systems, contained in a letter dated August 22, 2003, purportedly written and signed by him.
He said that Birkenfeld denied the signature, saying it was a forgery. Muraya said Birkenfeld also denied having talked to or corresponded with any Kenyan government officials over Infotalent contract.
The witness and one John Kiilu travelled to Miami, Florida, where they conducted an interview with Birkenfeld on June 11, 2015, in his lawyer's office.
He said this was after the Attorney General requested mutual legal assistance from the United States regarding Birkenfeld and Infotalent Systems Ltd.
Muraya said the request related to investigations into a contract for procurement of a law and order system for the Kenya police known as Project E-Cops.
It was single-sourced to Infotalent Ltd for €59,688,250, the contract purportedly signed by Birkenfeld in his capacity as a director.
He said that Birkenfeld through the FBI indicated he was willing to be interviewed but in the presence of his advocate Gerald Greenberg.
Mario Garcia Tariche, an FBI special agent, oversaw the interview, the court heard.
"[As] the denial tended to contradict contract which bore the signature of Birkenfeld, on February 11, 2015, the commission requested mutual legal assistance of the US government to interview him about his signature and the pre-contractual correspondence allegedly emanating from the office of the managing director of Ifotalent Systems Ltd and Infotalent Ltd in Switzerland," Muraya said.
More than 100 witnesses have already testified' two and an investigating officer are remaining.
Earlier former PS John Githongo told a court that €59.6 million (Sh6.8 billion) paid to one of the Anglo Leasing-type companies were never recovered.
He told the trial magistrate that a foreign company known as Infotalent Limited refunded commitment fee and additional money amounting to €5.2 million (Sh5.9 billion). Githongo said this has been paid by the government in relation to the E-Cops security contract in 2003-04.
“I made efforts to have the monies amounting to €5.2 million refunded in between May and August 2004 after l persuaded all the government officials who knew the directors of the said company,” Githongo said.
The magistrate will rule tomorrow on whether to add four more prosecution witnesses.
(Edited by V. Graham)