• “Having found the accused person guilty of the offences, he will pay Sh17 million or serve five years in jail,” Mugambi said.
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A Nairobi businessman has been fined Sh17 million after the Anti-Corruption Court found him guilty of corruption charges.
Chief magistrate Lawrence Mugambi ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against John Moguche Zachary.
“Having found the accused person guilty of the offences, he will pay Sh17 million or serve five years in jail,” Mugambi said.
Moguche was a director of a company trading as Binlaw Construction Company that was awarded several contracts by the government during the 2009 El-Nino rains.
The first contract according to the prosecution was to refurbish and rehabilitate state institutions at a cost of Sh32 million.
The prosecution told the court the accused did not complete the project but instead went on to demand payment from the then Ministry of Special Programmes.
The money demanded was not paid and so Moguche filed a complaint before an arbitrator and was was awarded Sh1.6 million.
He, however, on presentation of the award to the government, made alterations on the arbitration award and sought Sh7 million.
The court said the ministry through the office of the Attorney General, sought clarification from the arbitrator and found the amount demanded by the contractor had been changed.
The matter was referred to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and upon investigations, it was established that the accused had presented false documents.
In the case, Moguche was charged with fraudulently making an arbitration award without the authority of the arbitrator Engineer Joseph Thuo in effect that Binlaw Construction was awarded a sum of Sh97,176,206 with interest at 28 per cent per annum.
He committed the offence between October 31, 2002 and April 17, 2009 at an unknown place in Nairobi.
He also faced a second count of attempting to obtain Sh294,443,904 from the permanent secretary, Ministry of Special Programmes.
The prosecution says he falsely pretended that the arbitration award they relied on to secure a court decree at the High Court was valid.