UK court sends ‘chickengate’ duo to prison for five years
Electoral commission officials arrange ballot boxes at a tallying station in Nairobi during the last constitutional referendum. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Nicholas Smith, one of the architects of the ‘chicken’ scandal and the younger of the two disgraced officials, will serve three years in jail while his father Christopher, 71, got a one-and-a-half year suspended term with a 250-hour community service.
The Southwark Crown Court in London upheld that Kenyan officials, including IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, Energy secretary Davis Chirchir, who served as commissioners at the defunct IIEC, James Oswago (ex-CEO), former Judiciary registrar Gladys Boss Shollei (ex-deputy CEO) and former Knec boss Paul Wasanga, received bribes from S&O.
Two executives of a UK security printing firm Smith and Ouzman (S&O) will be in jail for a total of four and a half years for bribing Kenyan election and national examination officials to secure multi-million-shilling contracts.
Nicholas Smith, one of the architects of the ‘chicken’ scandal and the younger of the two disgraced officials, will serve three years in jail while his father Christopher, 71, got a one-and-a-half year suspended term with a 250-hour community service.
The sentencing of the British officials convicted of paying out bribes codenamed ‘chicken’ totalling Sh50 million to help the family-owned S&O win printing tenders in Kenya was handed down Thursday at the Southwark Crown Court in London.
The punishment of the corrupt British executives turns the spotlight on Kenyan authorities who have yet to act on any of their Nairobi-based accomplices who allegedly used their positions in the public service for self-enrichment and to damage the integrity of the country’s electoral process.
Judge Pearce-Higgins ruled that the bribery ring at the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) was “pre-planned, sophisticated, sustained and very serious.”
“Consequences of bribery can be catastrophic, leading to violence and loss of life,” said the judge, adding that bribery at S&O was commonplace and acceptable.
“It was cynical, deplorable and deeply anti-social, a moral turpitude,” said the judge in the strongly worded ruling.
S&O, which is one of the oldest printing firms in the UK, specialising in security documents such as examination certificates and ballot papers, Thursday accepted the court’s decision even as it announced that the duo had left its board in December.
“The company fully accepts accountability for the actions of its directors and we apologise unreservedly,” S&O said in a statement. “During this period we have learned many lessons and as a result have developed industry-leading, anti-bribery and corruption management processes.”
The London court upheld that Kenyan officials, including IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan, Energy secretary Davis Chirchir, who served as commissioners at the defunct IIEC, James Oswago (ex-CEO), former Judiciary registrar Gladys Boss Shollei (ex-deputy CEO) and former Knec boss Paul Wasanga, received bribes from S&O.
Others named as members of the ‘chicken gang’ are lawyer Kennedy Nyaundi (ex-commissioner), Kenneth Karani (senior procurement officer), an unnamed finance director and former Electoral Commission of Kenya commissioner Joseph Khamis Dena.
The Knec executives who ‘ate chicken’ include deputy CEO Mwai Nyaga, Geoffrey Gitogo (ICT manager), Ephraim Wanderi (computer manager) and Michael Ndua, the principal supplies officer.
Prosecutor Bryant-Heron told the London court that the bribery payments were made through transfers to Trevy James Oyombra, the S&O Kenyan agent, to accounts held at KCB for further distribution to the chicken gang.
Mr Oyombra’s bank accounts at Oriental Commercial Bank had been frozen but were Thursday reopened after he obtained a court order.
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