Statistics team bosses deny graft charges over census

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) director general and a procurement manager yesterday denied corruption charges relating to the procurement of 2009 National Census materials.
Mr Anthony Kilele and Mr Fred Ayiera denied charges of failure to comply with the law on the procurement of services, when they were arraigned before the anti-corruption court.
Principal Magistrate Lucy Nyambura ordered Mr Kilele to deposit Sh500,000 and Mr Ayiera Sh250,000 as cash bail.
The officers are said to have committed the crime between September 10 and October 30, 2009 in Nairobi.
Consequently, the magistrate issued summons to co-accused Samuel Baker to appear in court on July 24 to plead to the graft charges. Mr Baker is alleged to have withdrawn the funds from Dubai Bank in Nairobi on October 30, 2009 by pretending he had, through a non-existent entity, provided services to a public body.
Mr Kilele faces two counts of abuse of office by paying Mr Baker Sh5.9 million and Sh1.4 million through BM Logistics Company, a non-existing firm purported to have provided warehouse services for census materials to the bureau.
According to the charge sheet, Mr Kilele and Ayiera jointly failed to comply with the law relating to the Public Procurement and Disposal Act by not using the open tendering method as stipulated.
Mr Kilele was first appointed to head the statistics bureau on April, 14 2008 and his tenure was renewed last year.