•Oriko said MRE was registered in 2007 and he is not aware of any payments made to another MRE limited.
•He denied having any connections with the governor saying he got the supervisory role as he was the senior-most in the department dealing with the project.
Image: FILE
Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong’s witness has said the firm awarded a Sh8 million tender for waste management did its work.
Jairus Oriko told anti-corruption magistrate Douglas Ogoti that as the project supervisor, he developed the terms of reference which stipulated what Madam R Enterprises was to do for Busia.
“The activities were done and the company was paid,” Oriko told the court.
He was re-examined by lawyer Stephen Ligunya.
Oriko said MRE was registered in 2007 and he was not aware of any payments made to another MRE Limited.
He denied having any connections with the governor, saying he got the supervisory role as he was the senior-most in the department dealing with the project.
Concerning the nature of business for MRE, Oriko said one is not able to determine the experience of work it has done just by the face value of a document emanating from the office of the Attorney General.
The document is a business registration service. It shows the nature of business for MRE to be general hardware.
He said he has not studied law to know whether there was a contract between Busia and MRE and that he has no idea whether or not a contract has to be written.
On Wednesday, Oriko said there was no budgetary provision for the feasibility study on solid waste management which led to the loss of Sh8 million in the county.
Oriko is Ojamoong’s second witness after the governor gave an unsworn statement in June last year.
He defended the Sh8 million spent on the study by the alleged German company.
Ojamoong, Madam R Enterprises alongside other county officials were put on their defence after the prosecution called 20 witnesses in the case.
The county chief has been charged with abuse of office and engaging in a project without proper planning.
The other co-accused Lenard Wanda Obimbira and Allan Ekweny Omachari, the finance executive and finance chief officer respectively, wilfully failed to comply with the law relating to the management of funds.
They are accused of knowingly approving payments amounting to Sh 8,000,000 to Madam R Enterprises Ltd for a feasibility study on solid waste management, a project for which funding had not been appropriated
Edited by Kiilu Damaris