Also convicted were former officials of the electoral body- Gabriel Mutunga (procurement officer) and Willy Gachanja Kamanga (procurement manager).
The court dismissed Mr Gethi’s and Ms Makena’s defence, saying it was a well-crafted statement to run away from guilt.
Mr Gethi had claimed that the company was formed by his cousin in 2008, who later asked him to become a director.
Businessman Benson Gethi, who is linked to the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal, and a relative were on Monday found guilty of using forged documents to win a Sh105 million tender for supply of solar lanterns to the electoral body for use in the 2013 General Election.
Mr Gethi and the relative, Joyce Makena, were convicted by anti-corruption chief magistrate Lawrence Mugambi on two counts of forging a tax compliance certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and presenting it to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to qualify for the tender in 2012.
They will be sentenced this afternoon. The magistrate will jail or slap them with fines or both.
Also convicted were former officials of the electoral body- Gabriel Mutunga (procurement officer) and Willy Gachanja Kamanga (procurement manager). The two were found guilty of failing to safeguard procurement documents.
The court, however, acquitted former IEBC officials Adan Adano and Abdi Etema Ali, saying there was nothing linking them to the scam.
The court dismissed Mr Gethi’s and Ms Makena’s defence, saying it was a well-crafted statement to run away from guilt.
He said that being directors of Solarmak Technologies, the company involved in the tender, the duo could not dissociate themselves from it and that they were therefore criminally culpable.
Mr Gethi had claimed that the company was formed by his cousin in 2008, who later asked him to become a director.
He said he never participated in the tender or visited IEBC offices at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi.
Ms Makena defended herself saying she came to know about the IEBC tender after her arraignment.
The court heard that the IEBC officials committed the offence between October 22, 2012 and November 23, 2012.
It is alleged that they colluded to change the tender documents by changing the price schedule by Solarmak Technologies.
The company was to supply the lanterns for Sh127 million while a competing company, Konnexions Systems Ltd, had offered to provide the lamps for Sh107 million. But Solarmak Technologies’ tender documents were later altered to read Sh105 million.
The company was contracted to supply 30,000 solar lanterns to the electoral body but it was challenged before the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.
