IEBC’s Hassan named in UK’s fresh ‘Chickengate’ papers

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Issack Hassan has been directly named among senior Kenyan officials who participated in the ‘Chickengate’ scam, opening a fresh lid on the long-running corruption case involving a UK printing firm.

The revelations have been made in court documents that the prosecution used early this year to seize the assets of Smith & Ouzman, the London-based printer at the centre of the bribery-for-tenders racket.

Mr Hassan and seven other public officials are named as individuals who directly participated in the syndicate and pocketed bribes — codenamed ‘chicken’ — totalling Sh52 million in return for contracts to print election ballot papers.

This is the first time the eight officials have been directly named in court filings.

The list includes sacked Energy secretary Davis Chirchir, former IEBC chief executive James Oswago, lawyer Kennedy Nyaundi (ex-commissioner) and Kenneth Karani (senior procurement officer).

Four Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) officials, including the then chief executive Paul Wasanga, are also named as having participated in the bribery ring.

Court papers say Mr Wasanga was entitled to £5,000 ‘chicken’ every year from Smith & Ouzman. Geoffrey Gitogo, the council’s ICT manager, Ephraim Wanderi (computer manager) and Michael Ndua (principal supplies officer) were each paid $1,000 (Sh100,000), according to the court documents.

The Knec quartet is named in London charge sheet as having received bribes ‘as an inducement or reward for showing favour to Smith & Ouzman Ltd in relation to the award of and payment for contracts to print materials for Knec.’

The Business Daily has exclusively accessed the trove of court documents used to prosecute, convict, jail, and seize the assets of the directors of Smith & Ouzman – which London shipped to Kenya’s anti-graft agency last month.

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Trevy James Oyombra, the Kenyan agent for Smith & Ouzman, together with former Electoral Commission of Kenya officials, Joseph Khamis Dena and Hamida Kibwana, are said to have arranged payment of ‘chicken’ to the electoral chiefs.

The group “corruptly agreed to make payments to Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya officials as an inducement or reward for showing favour to Smith & Ouzman,” says the indictment documents from London’s Southwark Crown Court.

The kickbacks were “in relation to the award of and payment for contracts to print materials for the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya,” the documents say.

Fresh revelations that top officials at the electoral body pocketed bribes come only three days after the former IIEC officials put notices in local newspapers denying involvement in the scam.

Mr Hassan has consistently maintained his innocence in the bribery scandal and last week vowed to stay put at the IEBC to preside over the 2017 General Election.

“My appearance and alleged involvement in the Chickengate scandal will not in any way dent my credibility to manage the next polls,” said Mr Hassan on March 8, 2016 as he left the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) offices where he had been questioned over the bribery scam.

UK detectives retrieved damning e-mail exchanges between Smith & Ouzman and Kenyan electoral officials, shipping invoices and local purchase orders used by the procuring entities, to win a successful conviction in London.
UK prosecutors say costs were inflated by up to 38 per cent for many of the printing contracts, to cater for kickbacks to senior election officials.

The officials, for instance, inflated the price of each of the 14.51 million referendum ballot papers ordered in 2010 at the rate of Sh0.75 per ballot paper, translating to kickbacks totalling £105,193.82 (Sh14.8 million).

The stack of files used by the Serious Fraud Office to bring British citizens involved in the scam to justice should help nail the Kenyan officials who participated in the racket, lawyers who spoke to the Business Daily said.

Kamotho Waiganjo, a lawyer, said the materials from London should help the EACC and prosecutors put together a strong case and with speed.

“The court papers show that a credible issue has been raised and there is need for further interrogation. It helps give some level of credibility to the investigations,” said Mr Waiganjo, who served in the now defunct Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.

Ken Ogeto, managing partner at Ogetto, Otachi & Co Advocates, said the documents from the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) should help build a case but said Kenyan detectives must test the materials to ensure they meet the threshold required to convict those named.

“These materials help build the case. We can use the information as a basis for investigations, but it’s not conclusive,” said Mr Ogeto.

The new revelations again test the EACC’s resolve to confront the corruption networks that have been bleeding the Kenyan public of its scarce resources.

Kenyan authorities are yet to nail any individual in connection with the scandal that took place more than five years ago.

The EACC, which missed a self-imposed deadline to complete investigations into the scandal a fortnight ago, is still asking for more time to investigate the bribery scheme.

“Investigations are very dynamic and often open up other lines of enquiry... We cannot be rushed,” said Kairichi Marimba, the EACC spokesman.

“Immediately we are done with it, files will be forwarded to the ODPP (Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions).”

London’s Southwark Crown Court on January 8, 2016 seized the assets of Smith & Ouzman and ordered the British printer to pay a total of £2.39 million (Sh351 million) in fines and penalties for bribing Kenyan public officials.

Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins had in February last year sentenced Smith & Ouzman director Nicholas Smith to three years in jail while his father, 72-year-old Christopher Smith (chairman), was handed a suspended jail term of 18 months and 250 hours of community service.

The ‘chicken’ paid in relation to tenders for ballot papers covering the 2010 Constitution referendum, four parliamentary by-elections held in Shinyalu, Bomachoge, South Mugirango and Matuga as well as a host of civic polls.

Nine members of the defunct IIEC on Tuesday said Mr Oyombra used their names to extort the British company but never remitted anything to them.