- The case was scheduled for mention before Mugambi so that Prison Authority can avail final treatment medical report.
- Koech together with six others face nine counts of fraudulent acquisition of public property amounting to Sh19,888,500.
Image: FILE
The Anti-Corruption Court has adjourned the fraud case against former Kenya Medical Research Institute boss Dr Davy Koecha and six others to May 16.
Chief magistrate Felix Kombo adjourned the case because the trial magistrate Lawrence Mugambi was not sitting since he is out on other official duties.
The case was scheduled for mention before Mugambi so that prison authority can avail the final treatment medical report.
The report was to detail the status of Koech who is serving a six-year jail term over defrauding the institution of Sh19.8 million.
In the second case Koech is jointly charged alongside six other Kemri officials.
The officials are Dunstan Magu, William Kipyego, Renison Kiplangat Kirui, Joel Achira Duda, Battan Mecca Khaemba and African Medical Services Trust.
The accused have since denied defrauding the institution of Sh19.6 million.
Earlier, Mugambi had issued an order after a senior prison officer tabled a preliminary treatment medical report on the status of Koech, 70.
The prison authority had earlier been ordered to avail in court medical report on Koech to enable the court set up the hearing dates in the case against him and six others.
On September 15,2021, Koech was slapped with a fine of Sh19.6 million or serve six years in jail for illegally acquiring public funds in another separate case.
“Because of the current Covid-19 pandemic this court takes judicial notice of the difficult economic times and I find it fit to exercise my discretion and show mercy to Koech,” the magistrate said in his judgment.
In the case Koech had been charged with defrauding Kemri of Sh19.3 million.
He had faced three counts of unlawfully transferring research funds from Kemri’s account at Standard Chartered Bank’s Kisumu branch, to an account with the same bank at Yaya Centre in Nairobi.
Koech together with six others face nine counts of fraudulent acquisition of public property amounting to Sh19,888,500.
They are also accused of disposal of public property, abuse of office and failure to comply with the law relating to the management of the retirement benefits scheme’s fund.
The seven are also accused of conspiring to defraud Kemri over Sh19.8 million on diverse dates between May 2003 and April 2007.
The researcher is alleged to have unlawfully transferred Sh342 million belonging to Kemri’s pension fund to an account at Standard Chartered Bank, Yaya Centre branch.
The researcher was nominated for the 2006 Genius Laureate of the American Biographical Institute and his name was included in the 500 Greatest Geniuses of the 21st Century.
He served as head of the division of vector-borne diseases in the Ministry of Health from 1981 to 1984, director of the clinical research centre at Kemri from 1982 to 1984 and director of the biomedical sciences research centre from 1984-89.
Koech was the founder member, chief research officer and director at Kemri.
He was also the chairman of a commission of inquiry into the Kenyan education system between 1998 and 1999 which recommended major changes in the education system.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)