Chadwick Okumu is seeking to stop market regulator’s sanctions on him over plunder of Uchumi Supermarkets.
Keroche Breweries has fired former Uchumi Supermarkets chief financial officer Chadwick Okumu following his alleged role in massive looting that has seen the capital markets regulator impose sanctions on him.
Mr Okumu’s employment with Keroche was terminated following the release of an audit report on Uchumi, which implicated him in the systematic plunder of the retail chain alongside former CEO Jonathan Ciano.
The revelation was made in a suit Mr Okumu filed yesterday seeking to stop the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) from imposing sanctions on him following allegations that he aided and benefited from the pilfering of Uchumi.
The CMA last month barred Mr Okumu from holding office in any public listed company for two years, which the former Uchumi CFO has challenged.
Mr Okumu has blamed the regulator for his sacking.
“I have suffered great loss and damage to my reputation and to my profession as a certified public accountant of Kenya by not being able to hold onto a job and being terminated from other entities as a result of the negative publicity brought about by the CMA. I hereby attach a letter of termination from Keroche Breweries,” Mr Okumu says.
The capital markets regulator is yet to respond to the suit. Mr Okumu was hired in 2007 when Uchumi was under receivership, and he has now revealed that the retailer sacked him through a text message in June this year.
Mr Okumu says the CMA in August issued him with a notice to show cause why enforcement proceedings should not be taken against him.
The regulator on November 18 found Mr Okumu guilty of aiding the misapplication of funds from a 2014 rights issue, failing to ensure that Uchumi’s books were accurate, misleading the retailer’s board to influence their decisions, and facilitating a Sh350 million asset sale and leaseback deal with RentCo East Africa.
But Mr Okumu now claims that the regulator denied him crucial information needed to prepare his defence, including the names of individuals that reported various complaints against him.
He says the CMA imposed sanctions on him before proceedings of the notice to show cause were completed, denying him the right to a fair hearing.
Mr Okumu adds that the CMA’s refusal to disclose the names and positions of individuals who filed complaints against him proves that the probe was instigated by the regulator itself.
He holds that the CMA cannot be allowed to be prosecutor and judge.
“The CMA denied Mr Okumu vital information as to the identity of the makers of various complaints against me thereby indicating that the instigator of the investigation was the CMA and as the prosecution of Mr Okumu before the CMA was conducted by the CEO of the CMA, the hearing was not free and fair for it was not before an impartial body,” Mr Okumu says in court filings.
The CMA slapped former CEO Jonathan Ciano with a Sh5 million penalty and will attach Sh13.5 million property which he had not declared.
Former chairperson Khadija Mirre has been ordered to surrender to the CMA Sh1.77 million she earned in allowances while former director James Murigu was fined Sh660,000.
Another former director, Bartholomew Ragalo, will surrender to the CMA Sh855,000 he earned as a board member.
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