Kenya Insights

Tag: Samuel Gichuru

  • End Of The Road: How Okemo And Gichuru Played The Courts For Years

    End Of The Road: How Okemo And Gichuru Played The Courts For Years

    The Supreme Court in Nairobi delivered a landmark ruling on the extradition to Jersey Island of Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo and Samuel Kimunchu Gichuru.

    Mr. Okemo served as the Minister for Energy in the Kenya Government between 1999 and 2001 and Gichuru was the managing director of the Kenya Power and lighting Company got decades.

    The ruling, delivered by Chief Justice Martha Koome, and Supreme Court judges Ibrahim Mohammed, Smokin Wanjala and Njoki Ndungu revealed legal loopholes that the duo used to evade court processes.

    How It All Started

    Okemo and Gichuru came under the radar of investigative authorities after allegations that the duo accepted bribes from foreign businesses that contracted with KPLC and hid the money in Jersey.

    The duo managed to evade suspicion by having the contractors pay the dirty money into the bank accounts of a Jersey company called Windward Trading Limited.

    The offshore company named Gichuru, the KPLC Director as the beneficial owner, but
    he controlled it through proxies.

    He ensured the money was deposited in the bank account of the company and routed under discrete instructions to personal accounts of Okemo and Gichuru in Jersey.

    1′ July, 1999: When the matter was hatched, Okemo was charged in the Royal Court of Jersey with thirteen counts relating to the transactions in the accounts committed in the Island of Jersey under Jersey law.

    On the other hand, Gichuru is charged in the same court with forty counts for offenses allegedly committed under Jersey law in the Island of Jersey between 1991 and 28 June, 2002.

    26th May 2011. The Attorney General of the Island of Jersey wrote a letter requesting Kenya’s then-Attorney General, Amos Wako, to commence extradition proceedings against the two Applicants.

    While the letter was addressed to the Attorney General of Kenya, the authority to commence the extradition proceedings was in fact given by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and Miscellaneous Application No.g of 2011 filed in the Chief Magistrates’ Court at Nairobi to commence the said proceedings.

    The previously mentioned letter was received on 6th June 2011, 10 years later, and constituted a request for the extradition of Okemo and Gichuru from the Attorney-General of Jersey through Verbal note number 452/11 through the British High Commission in Nairobi.

    The Attorney-General forwarded the extradition request to the Director of Public prosecutions for his consideration and action.

    ISSUANCE OF “AUTHORITY TO PROCEED”

    The Director of Public Prosecutions issued an “Authority to Proceed” to the Chief Magistrate pursuant to the provisions of section 7(1) of the Extradition Act.

    The extradition Cause was allocated Nairobi Chief Magistrate’s Court Miscellaneous Application No. 9 of 2011. Subsequently, the applicants appeared in court and the extradition proceedings were ready to commence.

    OBJECTIONS TO THE EXTRADITION PROCEEDINGS

    Moments before the proceedings, Okemo and Gichuru filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection/Grounds of Objection dated in July 2011 and filed in court on 8 July 2011.

    In addition to the Notice of Preliminary Objection the duo filed Constitutional Petitions in the High Court being Petition numbers 90 and q1 both of 2011 which were subsequently renumbered Petition numbers 320/2011 and 321/2011 respectively.

    However, the objections were dismissed in a Ruling delivered on 5th February 2013.

    The two later filed a Constitutional application by way of an Originating Notice of Motion being Application against the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief Magistrate’s Court.

    The application was indicated as brought pursuant to Article 165(6) & (7) together with section 19 of the sixth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 as well as Rule 2 of the Chief Justice Rules 2006.

    The High Court Constitutional Application was however thrown out by Justice Isaac Lenaola on 18th December 2015.

    APPEAL TO THE COURT OF APPEAL

    The duo then ran to the Court of Appeal (Civil Appeals Nos. 5 of 2016 and 23 of 2016) respectively.

    This time, Hon. E.M. Githinji, H.M. Okwengu and J. Mohammed, JJA.) granted their request.

    “The order of the High Court dated 18′ December 2015 declaring the committal proceedings to be valid and the order of the extradition magistrate dated 5′ February 2013 requiring the committal proceedings to commence are set aside and in lieu thereof the committal proceedings are declared invalid and are hereby struck out.”

    The DPP, having not been satisfied with the decision. The office then lodged their appeal to the supreme court of Kenya.

    SUMMARY OF THE GROUNDS FOR APPEAL & THE PETITION TO

    THE SUPREME COURT OF KENYA

    In the ruling delivered, the Supreme court faulted the lower courts for thwarting extradition proceedings.

    “The Learned Judges erred in law in holding that the extradition proceedings instituted against the first and the second respondents without written authority to proceed issued by the AG are a nullity in law including any act done by the magistrate against the appellant in pursuant of such proceedings. Pursuant to this ruling, the OPP shall take steps to expedite the extradition proceedings before the sub-ordinate court as directed by the Supreme Court.”

  • Court To Rule On Gichuru, Okemo Britain Extradition

    Court To Rule On Gichuru, Okemo Britain Extradition

    The Supreme Court has set date for the hearing of a petition seeking clarification of whether former Cabinet minister Chris Okemo and former Kenya Power boss Samuel Gichuru can be extradited to Jersey Island to face theft and money laundering charges.

    The judges are expected to determine who between the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has the legal authority to commence extradition proceedings in court.

    The DPP moved to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal quashed the extradition of Mr Okemo and Mr Gichuru in March 2018 saying the process had been wrongly initiated by the prosecutions boss.

    In the appeal, the DPP wants the appellate court’s decision set aside.

    The Supreme Court will hear the suit on October 5, 2021.

    The Royal Court of Jersey said the Gichuru-Okemo secret accounts received bribes in hard currency estimated at Sh997 million, but only half of the entire loot was found and seized.

    Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo had reportedly subtly wired large sums from the Jersey account to themselves in the years to 2002. The authorities were only able to recover foreign currency amounting to Sh526 million and Sh444 million was to be wired back to Kenya after deducting court expenses.

    Mr Okemo served in President Moi’s government as the Minister for Energy between 1999 and 2001 while Mr Gichuru was the managing director of Kenya Power & Lighting Company between November 1984 and February 2013.

    A court in Jersey issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo on April 20, 2011, but the two have challenged the move through multiple legal suits in Kenyan courts.

    The DPP wanted the two sent to Jersey to face corruption and money laundering charges.

    Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo face a jail term of up to 14 years each if they are extradited to Jersey and found guilty of the racketeering charges preferred against them.

    Interestingly, Kenyan authorities have never opened criminal proceedings against the duo, whose bribery scheme cost taxpayers billions of shillings and hurt the development of power plants — ushering in power blackouts and expensive electricity.

    The asset seizure proceedings and judgment offer a detailed breakdown of the goings-on in the secret account and a rare glimpse of the extent to which Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo benefited from the bribery scheme.

    The scheme was executed through Windward Trading Ltd — the entity through which Mr Gichuru received hefty kickbacks to award suppliers lucrative tenders during his two-decade tenure at the helm of Kenya Power that ended in 2003.

    Mr Gichuru in August 1986 set up Windward Trading in Jersey as the entity which would receive bribes disguised as ‘commissions’ or ‘consultancy fees’ from firms which won Kenya Power tenders.

    Walbrook Trustees (Jersey) Ltd were the administrators and face of the company and would wire kickbacks received to Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo.

    However, in May 2002, Walbrook filed a suspicious transaction report with Jersey authorities and refused to make any further payments to Mr Gichuru from these accounts, leading to a freeze on the accounts.

    The scheme was brought into sharper focus by Mr Gichuru’s messy divorce case where his wife lifted the lid on his secret offshore accounts, prompting Jersey authorities to further investigate the matter.

    Windward on February 24, 2016 pleaded guilty to one count of possessing proceeds of crime and three counts of acquiring profits from criminal conduct.