The Anti-Corruption Court in Nyandarua has ruled that former Nyandarua Governor Daniel Waithaka Mwangi and five county officials have a case to answer in connection with a Ksh.50 million graft case filed in 2018.

The five officials include; Grace Wanjiru Gitonga, Martin Igecha Kamami, John Ngigi Daniel, Jesse Wachira Mwangi and Simo Irungu.

Two Israeli contractors; Chen Yochanan Ofer and Albert Attias, directors at Tahal Consulting Engineers Limited, had been implicated in the case but charges against them were dropped since could not be traced and their existence could not be established.

Senior Principal Magistrate Judith Wanjala made the ruling on Friday almost five years after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) first moved to court seeking to have the eight persons jailed.

Before moving to court, EACC conducted investigations into the eight accused persons and discovered that the former governor and the five county officials engaged the two TAHAL officials to develop a County Water Master Plan and to design the Ol Kalou Town Sewerage System without following the procurement laws and regulations.

The county paid Ksh.23,895,513 as an advance payment for "consultations" and a subsequent sum of Ksh.26,575,000 for the same but no services were rendered.

The EACC later discovered that the two so-called directors had been disowned by TAHAL company even before the payments were remitted via RTGS to a bank account in Tel Aviv, Israel. The pair are said to have disappeared immediately after the payments were made.

Efforts to track down the money proved futile as Kenya and Israel do not have mutual legal assistance arrangements and Israel's foreign policy also prohibits handing over of its citizens to be tried in foreign jurisdictions.

According to EACC, the ex-governor did not have the authority to enter into such a contract with the Israeli consulting firm since Chief Officers of the respective Departments, who are the Accounting Officers, are the only ones authorized to enter into such contracts.

Now that the court has ruled that the governor and his co-accused have a case to answer, they will now be required to adduce any defence evidence they may have before the Court delivers a judgment on whether the evidence presented before the court is sufficient enough to find them guilty of the offenses for which they were charged in 2018.

The former governor and Grace Wanjiru Gitonga were charged with three counts of willful failure to comply with the law relating to procurement.  

Martin Kamami Igecha, John Ngigi Daniel, Simon Ngigi Daniel and Jesse Wachira Mwangi were each charged with a single count of the aforesaid charge.

The charges against the two contractors were dropped because they could not be traced and their existence could not be established.

The case will be mentioned on March 17, 2023. 

If found guilty, the accused persons face lengthy jail terms and they might also be forced to pay back over Ksh.100 million to the State.