A Nairobi court has heard explosive new testimony detailing how city politician Francis Wambugu Mureithi and his associate Francis Mwaura allegedly orchestrated a Sh320 million scam by convincing a retired United Nations diplomat that they could secure a lucrative food-supply tender at the Department of Defence.
Two witnesses took the stand before Milimani Magistrate Robinson Ondieki and narrated how the deal was packaged to look like an authentic military contract that never existed.
Abbay Abeba told the court that Mureithi and Mwaura introduced themselves to her as directors of a credible company and convinced her to invest more than 200,000 US dollars.
She explained that she handed over the money in cash and through bank transfers after being assured that the Ministry of Defence had approved the supply of Seramix products.
She said the two men were introduced to her by a man identified as Hussein Osman.
Abbay said she has bank statements and signed documents to support her account and that she will present them to the court when required.
Advocate Julius Rotich also testified and said he drafted a series of memorandums of understanding for the accused after being instructed by Mwaura.
Rotich told the court that detectives later showed him four MoUs which purported to be agreements between Doc Find Limited and other companies, including Wina Trading Limited.
He said the documents indicated that Doc Find Limited had been awarded a tender to supply foodstuffs to the Department of Defence.
According to the prosecution, the MoUs were used to convince retired UN diplomat Haile Menkerios to send large sums of money to Doc Find Limited and to several other companies linked to the scheme.
These companies include Wina Trading, New Research Path, Hammond Agencies and Sembel Trading. Court records indicate that Menkerios wired the equivalent of Sh320 million between April and November 2016 after being promised a share in a major DoD contract.
This criminal case follows earlier civil proceedings filed by Menkerios in 2018, a suit that was dismissed after the High Court found that the agreements relied upon were illegal and unenforceable.
The judge noted that the alleged tender lacked supporting documents such as invoices, delivery notes or evidence of an authentic government contract.
Despite the collapse of the civil matter, the criminal case has continued and recently survived an attempt to have the magistrate recused.
The testimonies presented on Monday add new pressure to the accused as prosecutors attempt to prove that the entire tender was fabricated to dupe foreign investors who trusted the alleged connections of the two accused men.
The hearing will resume on December 15 and will run for three consecutive days as more witnesses take the stand in a case that has dragged for nearly a decade and continues to expose how fictitious military tenders are used to lure unsuspecting investors into multimillion-shilling traps.
